Samantha Allan Park Part 4: An Alternate Universe
by TheNerdyTomboyNewb96
Summary: Enemy contact has been made, the next crazy event begins. However, crazy things happen when Karai and Hun escape from police radar somewhere off the map. New characters (in a sense) are introduced as the turtles face more heartbreaking challenges, and twists that no one ever saw coming. Who will survive, and will they come back the same way they were before?
1. Chapter 1

**Any references to TMNT or anything from popular media and culture is NOT MINE. I only own my OC's. Any references to "TMNT Out of the Shadows" DO NOT BELONG TO ME. Only my additions that I came up with myself belong to me. Anything from the films or other series ARE NOT MINE, only my OC's and my ideas that I have added onto the story FOR FUN. ****  
****Thank you. **

****Chapter #55

***Friday May 20****th****, 2016***

****It had been 3 weeks since Sam and Donnie had worked together to discover some leads towards Karai and Huns motives for their recent travels around the world. Casey had contacted Donnie the next day and the two met with the brothers to update them, and then held a private meeting with Chief Vincent to discuss what they all had learned.  
Vincent then relayed this information through some personal connections to the director of the FBI.

At this point, the turtles were given permission to hack and do whatever they needed to when being on the lookout for Karai and Hun.  
By the time Donnie had returned to searching for videos of the two villains in Canada, he had learned that they were already en route back to the U.S. They traveled to a few different cities throughout the country. These visits did not follow a specific order, unlike when they had visited different countries. This was probably due to the fact that they were back in the states which would make it easier for police to capture them if they were traveling from state to state in a specific order of one state and then onto the next nearby state.

Donnie continued to monitor Sachs purchases made from his banks accounts and tried his best to observe where the two were headed as they traveled from one state to another random one throughout the country. Simultaneously, he continued to analyze every bit of footage he had obtained from the many visits the two had made from out of the country. He did the best he could to analyze every face he could find. Did they come up again in other videos? Did they show up in video footage from within the prison where the other four criminals who worked for Shredder were located? Did they show up in any articles from around the world where they were noticed completing any other suspicious activities? Donnie had made the other three brothers help him search for any and all faces in each video they were able to obtain.

The brothers made sure to inform Vincent of any connections they made, and luckily a few small things were noted. For example, a few more faces in the background of different videos, or men who were walking down the street when Karai and Hun were, these faces were also seen within the prison. These men were questioned, but revealed nothing. The turtles were not informed of what was being done to make these men talk, but they knew 'something' was being done to get them to talk. However, the men stayed loyal and said absolutely nothing. Knowing this, FBI agents were sent to each city to question as many people as they could: owners of hotels, restaurants, or other businesses where Karai and Hun had been spotted, local officials, even general citizens who were spotted in the same videos as the two villains.  
All this happened within three short weeks. You'd think that three weeks is plenty of time, but somehow a lot had happened within this supposedly lengthy time period.

The last plane ticket purchased by the villainous duo lead them to Pennsylvania. This was also the last place any transactions were made through Sachs accounts in general. However, Donnie happened across an article about gang activity in Washington D. C. and apparently an anonymous witness stated he heard people in the fight saying something about 'the dragons.' This informed Donatello that Karai and Hun were traveling under the radar and were paying for everything with cash so that facial recognition would be the only way to determine their location. Again, Donnie informed everyone about this so that they would be prepared for the two to appear out of nowhere.

Unfortunately, exactly two days after discovering this information, there must have been a prison break that was conducted in secrecy. Even with all the security measures being taken, somehow some mind control devices had been used to control the minds and actions of some officers who escorted Tatsu out of the facility after they had dressed him up to look like an officer himself. It was assumed that it was Stockman's technology that had been used and had been smuggled into the building when some New Yorkers were arrested (presumably on purpose) and they had been collected by soldiers in disguise as actual officers.

The only easy part of this whole situation was learning where the criminals had headed after Tatsu's escape since there had been a break in at what had become a second home to Donatello, the lab where he had been given permission from his brothers to work with some scientists who were friends with Jay who were working on a project where they thought Donnie's intelligence could be of assistance.  
The brothers were now walking with Jay and Casey underground and then made their way back up to the surface so that they were standing in the alley way behind a large building, the building Donnie worked at.

"Okay, so where are we again?" Mikey asked.  
"This is where I've been working with Jay and some of his friends that escaped the Foot. They've been working on a project they thought I could help them with. Remember, I talked to you guys about this months ago when Vincent had offered for us to blend in with society? It was right after we received our keys" Donnie stated as he typed in the code that would let him enter the building.  
"Ohhhhhh that!...so what do you do again?" Mikey questioned.  
"Maybe if you listened the first time then he wouldn't have to repeat himself" Raph grunted and he flicked his youngest brother right between the eyes, resulting in a grumpy Michelangelo.  
The door opened.  
"I'll explain it again when we get inside. Let's go" Donnie said as he ushered everyone into the building.

The guys had never been in a building quite like this. The walls were…bare. They were bright white with absolutely nothing on them. There were no bulletin boards or flyers, there weren't even windows on any of the doors.  
"What kind of place is this?" Leo questioned cautiously, feeling extremely uneasy.  
"I know it looks creepy," Jay stated, "but we're safe. It looks this way so that if someone who wasn't meant to be here broke in, they would have a difficult time locating their way around. Unfortunately, Karai and Tatsu are stronger and more skilled than the average human so they were able to do whatever they wanted to with ease" he groaned.  
They walked down endless hallways until finally they entered a small room. However, one of the walls of this tiny room was actually a window that overlooked a humongous open space down below (there was a staircase outside a door in the room that lead to this space). The brothers could not see what was in this space since the lights had been turned off, so all they saw was pitch black darkness.  
"Fancy stuff" Mikey stated as he went to touch a button along a long control panel that was located right below the gigantic window.  
Donnie instantly slapped his brothers hand without thinking.  
"Don't touch ANYTHING" he stated sternly as he pointed to his younger brother.  
"Words work without violence" Mikey mumbled.  
"So what is all this?" Leo asked.  
Donnie and Jay looked at each other. Jay then took a step back and ushered his arms forward, signaling to Donnie that he had the floor to explain.

"Alright then" he said as he clapped his hands together. "So Jay has some very intelligent friends who for years had been working on the concept of traveling in ways other than by vehicle."  
"So time travel?" Raph asked.  
"Sort of, but more so along the lines of…seeing what else the world could offer."  
Leo straightened his stance.  
"You…you don't mean, like…another universe" he stated with a scrunched face.  
Donnie nodded as he bit his lip.  
"Exactly that. Regardless of any research or theories conducted, people always laughed at the idea of traveling to an alternate universe, but then Kraang appeared and it wasn't such a silly idea anymore. SO, because of this, the university where these guys work at as scientists gave them some grants to fund their research and they've actually been able to buy some rather difficult to locate materials and low and behold, we were able to build something incredible" Donnie said, beginning to sound way more excited than an almost adult male ever should.  
"But how is that even possible? I mean, everything has just been theories, like-" Raph stated before being cut off by his youngest brother who said-  
"Death" in a low tone.  
Leo and Raph both slapped the back of Mikey's head.  
"What is the matter with you?" Leo snarled with Raph glaring and gritting his teeth.  
"OW! Quantum Immortality is a thing! Right?" Mikey said as he looked toward Donnie for reassurance, while also holding onto the back of his head.  
"Yeah guys. Quantum immortality theorizes that when people die their consciousness leaves their body and travels to another universe where that person is either about to begin a new life or where they are still alive, but their body remains here which allows the remaining loved ones to mourn from their loss as they hold funerals or memorials" Donnie stated calmly.

Leo and Raph stood still besides for their nervously blinking eyes.  
"Right…continue" Leo said, now feeling guilty for accusing Mikey of being morbid and ridiculous when he was actually referencing something extremely interesting.  
"Anyway," Donnie continued, "while that is one theory that has been discussed, this team focused on, well, a mix of two different theories actually. The first is known as the many world's interpretation."  
"Ohhhhhh! I've heard of that!" Mikey said as he raised his hand and jumped in place.  
Donnie chuckled. "Go on."  
"It means that everything that happens leads to a new universe where that action leads to different results. For example!" Mikey said as he then turned towards Raph and slapped him rather hard on the back of his shell.  
Raph growled and went to fight back when Donnie told him to 'hold on and listen.'  
"That alone has now created different universes based on the different outcomes. One universe could include you kicking my ass, one could include me missing and hitting Leo instead. In our universe, this is the outcome which we are experiencing now" Mikey stated proudly.  
"Ugh, that's the dumbest-"  
"Truth" Donnie said, cutting on his heated older brother.  
"How do you even know about all this?" Leo asked in amusement.  
"Heh, Sam and I research a lot of fun topics. She makes them understandable" Mikey said with pride, nodding his head and crossing his arms in front of him.  
"Alright, now someone explain why we needed to learn all this" Raph grunted.

"I'm going to come back to that. For now, I want to tell you about one more theory about a portal or gateway that was theorized by a man named Michio Kaku."  
At this point Donnie nodded his head for his brothers to follow him as he talked and exited the room through the doorway that lead to the gigantic space below.

"Kaku stated that if a gateway could be created and was powered by an apparatus that covered the entire solar system that that would be the needed size to create a portal with enough energy to rip a hole in space and time. The only way to do this would be to build an atom smasher half a billion miles long. Someone would need to fire two particle beams in opposite directions through a series of relay stations with each using powerful gravitational fields to bend the beams into an orbit around our solar system. The two streams would move in opposite directions in thousands of laps around the solar system and would get faster and faster until they collide, resulting in an explosion so powerful it would tear a hole into reality, or it would form a gateway. Then, inject some negative matter…"  
Donnie turned to realize his three brothers and Casey had absolutely no idea what the hell he was talking about.  
"*sigh* Leaving out the specifics such as how we even form negative matter, this theorized portal would never work because it would be so large it would stretch a human thin, the only way this portal would ever be able to be tested would be to use nanobots."  
"Wait," Leo cut in, "you keep saying this portal. But, didn't Kraang create a portal? That's how he got here in the first place."  
A wickedly excited smile grew on Donatello's face.  
"That's the thing. Kaku's portal would be impossible to build…but that was before the laws of science were broken with alien mutagen. The guys I've been working with helped me determine that Kraang must rely on mutagen for multiple purposes back wherever he is from. This means that his laws of physics include mutagenic properties. So then we decided to include this mutagen in our testing as well."  
Donnie then turned on the lights to the open space so that a huge machine was seen and revealed. It circled all throughout the room and certain sections even cut throughout the middle of the room so that different sections of the device were connected to others. At the very front of the room were large metal beams that were formed in a circle. On both sides of the circle were poles that connected this central piece to the rest of the machine that circled the large room.  
"Ahhh so you're finally showing them."

At this moment four young men had entered the room. They each introduced themselves to the turtles. The first man named Logan had white skin, shorter brown hair that revealed his forehead, and blue eyes. He seemed very familiar to the other three turtles, but they couldn't quite think back to where they would have ever seen this man before. The next man named Dave also had white skin but was taller than the first man. He had lighter brown hair that was styled and curved upwards on top his head where his forehead was also exposed and he had brown eyes. The next man named Justin was an Asian man whose black hair was styled so that it curved to the left while also revealing his forehead who had brown eyes. The final man named Cameron had black skin with short black hair where his forehead was exposed and had brown eyes that were located behind a solid black pair of glasses.  
All four men seemed somewhat familiar since each of them had been at Jay and Brenda's wedding.

"Donnie" Leo began.  
"It's okay. These are the four guys I've been working on this project with" Donnie reassured.  
"If it means anything, we owe you our lives. So we'd be pretty dishonorable pieces of shit if we told anyone anything about you guys" Dave said with a shrug.  
"I'm pretty much obsessed with you guys. You know, since you're literally the coolest thing I've ever seen. And I've seen some shit" Justin stated bluntly.  
Jay gritted his teeth and smiled. "My friends are interesting. But trustworthy. Even Stockman over there" Jay said as he pointed towards Cameron, who made it clear he was not pleased with the reveal of his last name.  
"Dude! Really?!" he called out as he tossed his hands up at his sides.  
"Honesty gains their trust, not hiding the truth" Jay said.  
"Okay look, since the three of you are already glaring me down," Cameron stated as he turned towards the three brothers he had just met, "I'm Baxter's cousin. I had no idea he would voluntarily join Shredder, none of us did. Not my younger brother, not Baxter's older brother Dexter. None of us. We did everything we could to get him to stop worrying about being the best of the best. I mean, unfortunately his parents made his entire life a competition about being the best and that lead him down some regrettable paths. But I'm not my cousin, so you don't have to worry about me turning against you or anything. I was forced Foot after all. I owe my freedom and my life to the four of you."

The three brothers softened their expressions, feeling some compassion for the man and the loss of his cousin. The three couldn't imagine what it must be like to have so little family love and instead have that replaced with competition, frustration, and anger for all of their lives.  
"Alright, so we know you guys aren't going to tell anyone about us. So continue telling us why we're here" Leo stated.  
The four scientists looked back and forth at each other.  
"Take it away Donnie" they said in unison, knowing how much their new colleague loved to nerd out and explain everything.  
Donnie smiled and began to explain things once more.  
"Thanks to the endless amounts of mutagen that Professor Perry has kept stored underground, we have been able to properly and humanely test mutagen to the best of our abilities and with that information we were able to determine which mutagens could be used to create a device that would hold the same energy levels as the atom smasher I mentioned earlier. Earlier on I stated that the machine would be so large that humans wouldn't be able to physically test it if something impossible like that could ever even be built. But, since this is obviously much smaller, we can travel through it."  
"Wait, so you're saying that you guys actually built a portal that can take us to a different dimension, or universe, or whatever?" Leo asked in amazement.  
"That's exactly what I'm saying" Donnie said as he rubbed his hands together.  
"Ugh, I'm butting in" Dave stated. "Because this dork won't take credit for building more than 90% of this machine himself. Like we all have the smarts to discuss it, but when it comes to actual construction, this guy is a life saver" Dave said with a closed eyed-wide teeth bearing smile. He knew Donnie got slightly embarrassed when taking credit for his accomplishments, but he was truly grateful for everything his mutant friend had done for the team. He also enjoyed annoying people he cared about, and now was the perfect opportunity.  
Donnie was waving his friend away and continued to tease back, so he didn't realize his three brothers smiling because of their brother's accomplishments.

They all knew that Donnie was a freaking genius and was a good…80 to 90% reason that they had all survived over the years. Donnie did almost everything for them. He wasn't just the scientist, he was the family doctor, electrician, mechanic, safe-keeper (in regards to security systems), and therapist/psychologist. Donnie knew about all different types of sciences and was able to provide so much for his family because of it, but his brothers knew that he had so much more to offer to the world than just protecting and upgrading home appliances.  
So seeing him being praised by a team of scientists was heart-warming for the brothers. Of course, they wouldn't go overboard and tell him all this because…well, it would be awkward. None of them ever got 'mushy' like that unless something was truly wrong. But the next time Donnie was downing himself and in a negative funk, they were definitely going to reference this moment.

"Anyway" Donnie stated as he returned back to the original conversation, "the reason all of us are here now is because…well. We successfully opened a portal to an alternate dimension. Now whether there are multiple universes we can travel to or not, we don't know yet. But we were able to access one. That's why I mentioned the multiple world's theory earlier. The universe we found is similar to ours, but there are some differences, as if certain things did or didn't happen in that universe compared to what did or didn't happen in ours. I haven't been there, but Jay has traveled over with these guys while I stayed back and monitored everything…"  
The brothers waited for Donnie to continue talking. They were shocked at how long his pause was.  
"What's wrong with the other universe?" Leo asked.  
Donnie looked worried. He would open his mouth to talk, and then he would immediately close his lips.  
Jay placed a hand on Donnie's shoulder, signaling that he would take over.  
Donnie nodded since it was hard for him to say what was discovered in this alternate universe.

"When the guys and I went over, everything seemed normal. It's basically an alternate New York, essentially another Earth overall. We're still studying it, A LOT. But so far we've only traveled around New York which is where the portal opened to. The first thing we instinctively thought to do was to check and see how our lives were different or similar in this new world. If we even existed that is. So, we checked underground first and, well, you guys don't exist" Jay stated gently.  
"Whoa…why not?" Mikey asked with wide eyes.  
"From what we've learned, the Foot were wiped out years ago. There's no New York branch, there's no Tokyo branch. Nothing. No Shredder, no soldiers. So there was no corporation that experimented on baby turtles."  
"I wanna feel happy, but it's weird to think that if the Foot was wiped out and everyone else was never put in danger…" Raph trailed off. He was glad to hear that the Foot couldn't hurt people, but it left him with a strange feeling to know that something like that would mean he would still be a regular turtle in a cage.  
"It's normal to feel confused about it. There were things that changed within each of our families and it's definitely difficult to comprehend it" Logan stated. "I lost one of my siblings because of such slight changes…and that took me awhile to recuperate from."  
Mikey's eyes went wide. "You. You're related to the triplets. Right?"  
"What?" Leo asked.  
"So there's a guy on Sam's soccer team. Brownish black hair, kinda curls up some and he has brown eyes. Sometimes when they leave the arena he walks over to a guy that sort of looks like him but the other guy has much shorter cut hair and blue eyes. And then there's a girl who looks like both of them because she has a short haircut but she's thinner and she's cute and-"  
"Your point?" Leo cut in with a stern tone.  
"Their triplets. Sam has mentioned them before, and he looks exactly like them but older" Mikey stated as he nodded his head and pointed towards Logan.  
"Ahhhh I remember now" Raph said with a nod. "They were at the wedding to." Raph then paused and closed his eyes with a pained expression displayed on his face. "Does that mean in this alternate universe that one of them…"  
Logan nodded. "Apparently there were complications at birth and my sister was never born in the alternate universe. It's just guys. It took me awhile to wrap my head around that. I kid you not I returned and for hours just sat at home holding my sister and crying. Of course I couldn't tell her anything so she had no real idea why I was crying, and I mean she was right there in front of me which proved she was okay. But knowing that one little thing could have done something so tragic, it's not easy to cope with. Moral of the story, don't feel strange for being happy the Foot exist now because without that you wouldn't be here. Its tough stuff to wrap your head around" Logan reassured with a smile, to which the turtles greatly appreciated.

Mikey paused and looked straight at Jay. "What happens to Sam?"  
"So, it's not necessarily what happens to her, its more-"  
"Guys we need to get things moving."  
Everyone turned to see Casey running back down the stairs (which no one knew he had even left due to the conversations that were being held).  
"I just got off the phone with Vincent. So…she didn't know about all this. I mean, a lot of people knew nothing about this, it was a classified project. But she's pissed because she sees it as a motive that detectives could have known about in regards to Karai, Hun, and Tatsu's actions. She believes that since all three traveled through the portal that we could have been better prepared if more people knew about this project. She's on her way here now so if you have something you're doing with this" he said as he waved his hand in circles towards the giant machine, "then you need to do it now."

Jay nodded. "I'll explain more once we travel."  
The other four men began moving into stations while Jay and Donnie talked and lead the turtles over towards where the portal would be opening.  
"The four guys are going to stay behind with Casey and monitor everything while we are gone. That's why I needed all four of you guys to make this journey with me. We don't know why Karai and Tatsu wanted to travel to the alternate universe we discovered, but they must want something. The main thing we've learned is that this world is much, MUCH safer than the world we live in today, and because of the peace the state is also much more advanced than ours. That could play a factor in our enemy's motives, but it's hard to know for sure. I'll explain more about mine and Sam's living situation once we get there. I don't know for sure where it will send us since, well, we haven't fixed that part just yet on our end. But whatever happens, try to stay hidden and don't interact with anyone, even people you've met such as Sam herself. We don't know how people will react, so act the same way you would as if we were in our New York city" Jay informed.  
"Take these" Donnie said as he handed a small shell looking device to each person in the group.  
"They don't do much, but they'll allow us to communicate here with the guys on their end. Somehow the mutagen allows communication between space and time, so if anything goes wrong we can communicate with each other. Everyone upstairs including Casey had already received one."  
"Whoa, T-coms!" Mikey announced.  
"What?" Raph grunted.  
"You know, turtle communicators! Since that's all they really do."  
"Guys! Right now our goal is to stay close and meet up somewhere on a rooftop as soon as possible. We don't know where this thing will send us, so we need to meet back up fast. On the T-coms are two buttons. Red means to talk just in the universe we're in, and blue is used to communicate back to our home" Donnie informed.  
"Wait, is Casey going to tell April, Sam, or Brenda where we are?" Leo asked.  
Jay bit his lip and in a saddened expression said "he'll update April and Brenda. Sam…not so much. He's going to stall on that one. You'll….you'll see why later."

"We're all set!" Justin stated through an intercom that allowed the group in the open space to hear what was being said in the booth up above.  
"Aright guys. Are you ready?" Jay asked.  
The brothers nodded. Donnie turned around and gave the men up above a thumbs up, and within seconds, the portal was open.  
They all took a long sigh, and they walked through the portal.

It felt strange, as if they were being thrown around. It lasted for about 10 seconds. There wasn't any pain or discomfort, but it felt as if they were spinning and being tossed around, and then darkness, but that was mainly because wherever they all were it was dark.  
BAM!  
Lights started flashing and music was blaring as people began screaming and cheering.  
Raph was standing in the back of a large, LARGE, room. Well, it wasn't even a room. It was more of a warehouse that seemed like it stretched for miles.  
"Concert? Awesome. So much for staying hidden" he grumbled, not that he could even hear himself over the crowd of screaming fans. Even in the very back of the room it was loud. He quickly realized, and was grateful for the fact, that this must have been some type of costume event since everyone was wearing some type of costume, that or everyone here just dressed really weird.  
He pulled his T-com out of his pocket and pressed the red button.  
"Where are you guys?" he shouted into the device.  
"I'm all the way in the front" Donnie stated.  
"I'm with him" Jay stated.  
"I'm in the very back" Raph stated as he leaned back on the wall behind him.  
"Hey Raph, jump up for me" Leo stated.  
Raph shrugged and did as he was told.  
"I see you. Heading your way. Mikey were are you?" Leo asked.  
"Dudes this is awesome!" Mikey exclaimed.  
"Mikey where are you located?" Leo asked again, much more sternly.  
"In HEAVEN!" he exclaimed.

Mikey wasn't exactly paying attention since he was located right in the direct center of the building. Leo was asking for him to jump as well, but Mikey had already put his T-com back in his pocket. He couldn't believe it. He was surrounded by people at some type of concert or music festival. And of all freaking Artists, BTS was performing. Like, had he died and gone to heaven? Their new album had just dropped…oh, back in their universe. He assumed that was also the case here since the boys were currently performing 'Save Me' from the album.

'I guess this is something that stayed the same' Mikey thought as he looked around at everyone. However, he was confused as to why BTS of all groups was performing in a random warehouse.  
That's when the group started singing 'Fire,' and all thoughts in Mikey's head flew right out the door.  
He knew these lyrics and he knew this dance, so once the music started playing he was dancing and scream singing without even realizing it. Sam was the reason he even knew this group existed and they had quickly become one of his many favorites. However, had had been jamming so hard that he and a fan standing nearby had both bumped into each other and would have made the person tumble and fall, if Mikey hadn't hooked his arms under theirs that is.  
"Oh my god I'm so sorry!" he shouted.  
The person then turned around to face him. It was then that Mikey realized the person was wearing a Captain Phasma costume from Star Wars and assumed this person must be a woman.  
"You're fine! It's all good!" the person shouted.  
However, Mikey couldn't hear anything due to all the noise.  
"What?!" he shouted.  
The woman tried to communicate with him once more, but he still heard nothing.  
The woman slumped her shoulders, obviously growing frustrated.  
She then pulled out her phone and typed a message that he could read. She showed him the phone so that he could read the words 'it's okay cutie, accidents happen '

Mikey stood there with a beaming smile.  
"You think I'm cute huh?" he asked as he tried to stand in a 'cool' stance. He pretended to lean against a wall and crossed his arms in front of his chest.  
The girl shook her head, typed another message, and showed him the phone.  
'Ehhh, you aight.'  
"Ha! That's not what you said the first time" Mikey teased. "What made you think I was so cute?" he pressed on.  
He then read the phone again.  
'Your costume shows off your muscles.'  
"Oh yeah, I work out a lot" he said as he flexed "so I needed to make sure the costume wouldn't rip due to these guns" he said with a confident smile.  
The conversation then went back and forth between him talking and the girl typing on her phone.

'You live around here?'  
"Ummm, sort of. I've been to New York before. But it's been awhile you know?"  
She nodded.  
'So what exactly is your costume of?'  
"Oh! It's an original. I made it, along with my brothers. They're wearing the costumes they made. They sort of look like mine but each of us has our own flare."  
'Oh? You have brothers?'  
"Yeah! I'm one of four. I'm the youngest actually. You know, save the best for last."  
He could tell that the girl was laughing.  
'I would agree, but I'm second to last in my group of four, so I'd be lying."  
Now Mikey was the one to laugh.  
"How about we call it a truce and say that both the last AND second to last are the best in the family?"  
The girl put her hand forward and shook his in order to claim the truce.  
'Do you have any sisters? Or is it just your brothers? What's the age difference?'  
"No sisters. And umm, I don't really know the difference. I just know it's by a matter of minutes."  
'WAIT, ARE YOU A QUADRUPLET?!'  
"Haha yeah I am!"  
'Dude that's insane? Do you all look alike?!'  
"Oh no. You can definitely tell the four of us apart. How about you? Since I'm assuming in your four siblings you're not a quadruplet."  
'I have one older brother and one older sister, and then I have a younger brother. Well…technically I have more siblings. I have family-friends who have literally helped raise me because our parents are so close, so in a sense I have two extra brothers and sisters from the extended family haha.'

Mikey paused and stood there. Even with all the music around him, he was frozen solid. He was talking to a woman with the exact same number of siblings as Sam. She had a younger brother and then an older sister and then brother. Plus, this new chick had the same number of extended family-friend siblings that Sam did. He couldn't believe it. There was no way, out of everyone here, there was no way that-  
"Hey! You okay?"  
Mikey finally regained his senses and realized the girl was standing so that her lips were near the side of his head. She had lifted her mask up just enough for him to hear her voice. A voice that he could recognize anywhere at any time, a voice who was back home taking her finals. So…how was he hearing it now?  
Mikey stood there and with a slightly shocked expression, he removed the girl's helmet completely.  
"Whoa, hey!" the girl called out. "Dude that's pushing it. Hand it back!"  
"Sam?" he asked softly, but loud enough for the girl to hear.  
She stopped and stared at him with her anger filled eyes.  
"I'm sorry but do I know you?" she asked in furry.  
"No…I guess you don't" he mumbled. This, now this felt weird. Sam didn't know him, but that was because this was a different Sam. This was a completely different girl, even if they did look the same…but this one was wearing…was that, lip gloss?  
Mikey reached out to run his thumb over the girls lips to see if that's what it really was, only to have his hand slapped away.  
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" she shouted.

'Shit! That's right, I can't do things like that since this isn't really Sam!' Mikey thought to himself as he quickly retracted his hand.  
"Ummmmm" Mikey stuttered, failing to respond with words.  
The girl then started to slap Mikey's arms. "Give me back my helmet and leave me alone you freak!" Sam shouted.  
Now that really stung. Of all things she could have called him, why did it have to be that? And of all people for this awkward encounter to be held with, why did it have to be Sam? This hurt him and he didn't know how to react. He felt scared. Even though he knew this wasn't really Sam, it hurt to see her acting this way towards him and because of this he didn't know what to do. While he was trapped in his thoughts, Sam continued to slap her hands against Mikey's arms, and the material of her costume was actually making that begin to hurt.  
"Sam, please stop" he stated, trying to grab onto her arms gently to make her calm down, to show that he wasn't going to hurt her. Apparently she didn't get the message.

"Don't touch me you weirdo!" she shouted as she yanked her arm back and then slapped him across the face.  
"Jesus Sam cut it out!" Mikey exclaimed. Without thinking, he used his shoulder to shove the girl back. He was used to his Sam having the strength and powers to resist his playful shoves and this would have done absolutely nothing to her…but once again, this was not his Sam.  
This usually harmless shove, a reaction from the pain and fear of the girls slaps and shouts, sent her crashing to the ground.  
'SHIT! What am I doing?!' Mikey thought.  
He took a step forward and began to lean his hand for her to grab onto.  
"Sam I'm so-"  
"GET AWAY YOU MONSTER!" Sam shrieked as she kicked her legs, both as a means to attack and also as a means to scoot away from him.  
Mikey froze and dropped the helmet in his hands, not even realizing he had done so.  
He shook his head, his breathing beginning to increase its pace.  
"You don't mean that-"  
"I do! God what is wrong with you?! Who treats any human like that? Especially a woman! You must be the lowest scum on the earth" she scowled as she glared at him. She then paused as she saw the 'man in the costume' in front of her look as if he was hyperventilating.  
He continued to shake his head as he spoke and he looked as if he was on the brink of tears. "You don't mean that. You, you don't-"  
He reached for her hand once more. For some reason he could not fathom that this wasn't his best friend, so the touchy feely person he knew like the back of his hand was not the same as this person.  
"God what is wrong with you?! I don't even know you! No means no, so stop trying to touch me. You act like a freaking animal."  
"No, we're best friends. You just don't know it yet."  
Sam rolled her eyes. "So you're one of those people. Look buddy just because we were having a nice conversation doesn't mean I'm obsessed with you or that I want to get in your pants. Now back of you freak or I'll call the police. I mean really, were you dropped on your head when you were born?"  
"SAM!"  
Sam turned around to see Jay running up behind her.  
"Oh shit!" Sam said. She knew she wasn't supposed to be here, so she tried to run away once Jay saw her.  
That's when Leo ran up and swung his arms around Sam so that she couldn't run. At the time he just saw Jay call to a woman who then ran away and assumed she had wronged someone in their group.  
"Pardon me miss…Sam?" he asked now that he was getting a good look at the woman.  
"Let me go!" she screamed as she attempted to writhe and claw her way out of the 'man in the costume's' grasp.  
"Jay! Help me!" Sam called out as she looked over towards her friend.

She looked over and saw that Jay was talking to the crazy pervert who had been touching her, and Jay was placing his hands on the man's cheeks so that he would look him in the eyes.  
"What the hell?" Sam mumbled.  
"What happened?" Leo asked.  
"Guess you're one of the brothers. Are you a pervert to?" she asked roughly.  
Leo's eyes went wide. He was taken aback and shocked by this random question. "Excuse me?"  
"You must be, since you won't let me go!" she called out.  
"SAM!"  
Sam remained still as she looked up and saw Jay storm towards her.  
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" he called out.  
"Okay, I know I wasn't supposed to sneak out and go to the concert, but-"  
"Sam I don't care about that! Why would you ever say shit like that to someone?!" Jay then tilted his head upwards to speak to Leo. "Leo trade places with me. Contact your brothers and meet me behind the warehouse. You" he said distastefully as he grabbed Sam's arm, "you're gonna go on a walk with me."  
Sam didn't argue and walked with Jay as he stormed off and lead the two out of the building.

Leo then walked over towards Mikey.  
"What happened?" he asked in concern.  
Mikey just kept shaking his head as he talked.  
"I'm not a monster man. I'm not a freak, or an animal, or a pervert" Mikey choked out, his breathing totally out of control.  
"Whoa, what?" Raph asked.  
Donnie and Raph had received a message from Jay earlier about Mikey's location and had just heard him saying all the names of what he wasn't.  
"Did Sam call you all those things?" Leo asked.  
"WHAT?! She's here?!" Raph bellowed.  
"Oh you would be the first to find her" Donnie groaned. "I see things got off on the wrong foot."  
Mikey's breaths were rapid as he spoke.  
"We were just talking and I realized she was Sam, so I removed her helmet so I could see her, and dude she was wearing freaking lip gloss! Like, the fuck?"  
"Did you touch her?" Donnie asked.  
"Well, yeah" Mikey said, his gaze facing the ground in embarrassment.  
"So, as you've seen, Sam here is very different from our Sam. I'll explain more later, but Mikey" Donnie said as he put his hands on his baby brother's shoulders, "just remember that that is not OUR SAM. She's going to look, think, and act differently. Whatever she says is not what our Sam thinks, and it definitely is not the truth. Just keep that in the back of your head the next time you interact, okay?"  
Mikey sighed and nodded his head.  
"Yeah, I know. Got it."  
He still looked down, but it was evident he was feeling better than he was moments ago.

The group then made their way through the crowd and exited the warehouse. They asked Jay for his location and quickly met him around the back of the building.  
There, Jay was leaning against the wall. He looked drained, as if he had just returned back from a war. And then there was Sam, who was looking at the brother's with such a painful look of disgust.  
"Now can you tell me why they're here?" she asked, although it sounded more like a demand.  
"Sam, these are friends of mine-"  
"How? We have all the same connections, all of us" she bit back.  
"Well, these are some new friends" he replied, fighting his hardest to remain calm.

"So now you hang out with perverts and assholes?" Sam stated. She hadn't even met Raph, and yet she was sending him his own individual death glare.  
Mikey bit his lip and looked away as a means not to freak out again when he heard her yet again refer to him as a pervert.  
"Sam, cool it" Jay demanded harshly.  
"Why? This guy touched me even when I said no and then he shoved me to the ground. And now you're telling me your friends with this clown?"  
"You don't even know me" Mikey suddenly cut in with a bitter tone and an agitated expression.  
"I know enough to know you're as slow as the animal you're dressed as" she bit back.

"Wow you're a bitch here" Donnie stated aloud…and then stood there with wide eyes as he realized he had said that aloud and not in his head.  
He then continued to stand there in shock as a female hand literally slapped him across the face.  
"Whoaa!" roared from the guys in the group after what they had just seen.  
That pushed Raph to his limit. He didn't care who this woman was or who she looked like, no one disrespected his brothers like that.  
Raph pulled Sam to the side and shoved his arm down on her chest so that her entire upper body was pinned to the wall of the outside of the building. He then moved his right foot and leg so that they pinned the lower half of her body.  
"Alright, listen up. Cut the shit. I don't know what act you're trying to pull acting all tough, but you can't do shit" he said as he pushed forward some, making it hard for the girl to breathe. "Do or say anything to any of my brothers again, and that face of yours is going to look different tomorrow morning" he threatened.

Sam turned her gaze towards Jay.  
"Are you seriously just going to stand there and let him threaten me like that?"  
Jay shrugged. "You know the rules. If he doesn't touch you, you don't touch him. Once you lay a finger on the guy then you're saying you have what it takes to hold your own. So you just told these guys you have what it takes to fight any of them. So, be prepared."  
Sam glared at the man in front of her and grumbled an "I'm sorry."  
Raph backed off, only for Sam to try and swipe and claw at him. So, he put her back in the same position.  
"Discuss whatever you guys need to. She ain't going nowhere."  
Jay sighed and ran a hand down his face.  
"I'm so, so sorry about her. I knew she was feisty, but I didn't know she was this bad. Damn."  
"What's our next move in this place? Where's a safe place for us to work?" Leo asked.  
"We're gonna head back to my place. My AU self already knows we all exist-"  
"Wait, what?" Raph called out. "Doesn't that like, change events in the future?"  
"You're thinking of time travel" Donnie stated. "If we were visiting ourselves in the future or past then yes, meeting ourselves would be bad. But in this case it should be fine."  
"What the hell are you all talking about?" Sam growled.  
"Ugh, well we have to keep her involved now since she knows" Jay groaned. "I wasn't going to tell any of the siblings, but I guess she'll have to tag along. Everyone ready?" Jay asked.  
Everyone nodded, even Mikey who had been staring at the ground the entire time.  
Jay then walked over towards Sam.  
"Sam, I promise I will explain everything when I get home. For now all I can say is that these are my friends. They're very important to me, so you need to show them some respect. We'll discuss everything, even what happened here just now, when we get back home. Can you walk home with me, and without harming my friends physically or verbally?" Jay asked.  
Sam glared at the men in the turtle costumes. "Just tell them not to touch me" she mumbled.

"Who would want to?" Mikey mumbled, resulting in a light nudge from Leo. This girl was already crazy, so they didn't need anything to make her act crazier.  
Raph let go of the girl and walked back over towards his younger brother. He was furious about how this girl was making his baby brother feel. Of all people, why did it have to be Sam (sort of) who was saying all this? Raph couldn't imagine what Mikey was thinking at the moment, but he and the others all prayed that once they reached Jay's house, everything would calm down and get a little bit better to some extent.

**Hello!  
This was uploaded for a day and then greatly change. If you read this before January 3****rd****, 2019 then I would highly recommend re-reading. This message will be posted on the following chapter as well. **

**Thanks!**


	2. Chapter 56

**Any references to TMNT or anything from popular media and culture is NOT MINE. I only own my OC's. Any references to "TMNT Out of the Shadows" DO NOT BELONG TO ME. Only my additions that I came up with myself belong to me. Anything from the films or other series ARE NOT MINE, only my OC's and my ideas that I have added onto the story FOR FUN. ****  
****Thank you. **

****Chapter #56

***Still Friday May 20****th****, 2016. Alternate Universe, 9:00p.m.***

****As the guys walked with Jay and alternate Sam, they were amazed at the physical differences in this New York compared to their own. Overall things looked the same, but there were some buildings that curved or almost built upon each other in designs that looked as if they would never work and stabilize, yet the buildings were standing tall without a problem. Besides for the shapes of some of the buildings, the other most noticeable physical difference was that in transportation, and there were numerous ways to travel!

There were sidewalks and streets with people using regular cars and bikes, but there was so many more options to choose from now.  
For one, there weren't just cars on the road, there were electric pods. This meant that one to two people traveled in a standing or sitting position. There were larger pods that could be driven on the streets, and there were much thinner pods that could be used on the sidewalks that included pedals.

Cars, buses, motorcycles, bikes, and other vehicles came in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and designs. In addition to seeing cars on the streets, there were also spots where cars could be parked and when the owner paid, the car would be taken underground so that the car was harnessed into a metal base on an electric track that would move the car through underground tunnels, and would then carefully bring the car back up to the surface. There were also trains that continued to run through subways underground.  
Then there were the airbuses. These buses traveled on tracks that were located on the lines between lanes on roads so that the buses could carry people over top of the cars driving right below them.

Now there was transportation on land and underground, but there were also multiple choices that were higher up and off the ground as well. There were bus tracks and even individual pods that carried smaller groups of people higher up in the air. The tracks height was based on the vehicle being carried and how fast. Airbuses were one level up from where the cars drove, then above them were the tracks for individual train pods, and then above these were trains that were connected underneath tracks (basically group version of the individual pods, but they were underneath the actual train tracks whereas the individual and coupled pods were on top of their tracks, and of course there was enough space so that none of these vehicles collided). And then the highest level was the electric trains that ran on the tacks above the group pods that traveled directly below them.

The guys were standing in an alley with Jay and au Sam as they gawked at the insane amount of ways to travel.  
"Sam, get us a bus that masks whose inside. I'll pay you the difference back later, but for now we just need to be out of everyone's sight" Jay stated.  
"Yeah, no problem" she muttered. She was still annoyed from the events that had taken place not long ago, but she sensed that Jay really cared about these guys, so in respect of her friend she did what he asked of her.  
"How is all this possible?" Leo asked, astonished at how many vehicles covered the roads and above.

"Look carefully," Donnie stated. "The roads are much thinner. That means cars are traveling quicker since the larger spaces from the roads have been removed. If all the alternate transportation methods more so require electricity than fuel to move, then things such as solar, wind, and other energy sources can be used so that more cars aren't needed since fuel won't be needed as much to generate power. It creates an eco-friendly cycle that provides more space for various transportation methods, and if the trains, buses, and other individual's pods are all on tracks that travel more quickly above and below ground, then that allows cars and buses on the roads to travel with ease since they can drive slower. The speedier methods are out of the way, so drivers can take their time more which then allows for safer driving and-"  
"Hey genius! Our ride is here" Raph interrupted. He had a feeling his brother could talk for hours about how everything around them worked, and Raph was not in the mood for one of Donnie's never ending rants.

"What is this?" Mikey asked as the group loaded onto the bus.  
The bus allowed so that the group could see through the windows (which the windows were literally the walls of the vehicle) but when looking in from the outside, no one could see a thing.  
Jay knocked on a window. A small and very thin section of the dark window dropped so that Jay could tell the drive where the group needed to be dropped off at.  
He then turned to address Michelangelo as the bus began to move.  
"Hide and Ride. A bus company that allows people to travel without allowing others to know who they are. Some people like it when they're on vacation in unknown cities, some like it for after parties when they're tipsy and don't want the whole world knowing, some people like to ride alone on date night. They're a hit and perfect for our current situation."  
"And that is?" au Sam asked. She sat in the seat that was attached to the back of the box where the driver was seated. Even this small box was completely darkened, the only difference being that the driver could not see the passengers, ensuring for complete privacy.  
"We don't want people judging our friends because of their costumes" Jay stated as he sat in a nearby seat.

There were benches and individual seats that could be moved throughout the vehicle. They started out as benches that lined the walls of the bus, but could then be broken apart into individual seats. These seats could then follow tracks so that they could be rearranged as benches or individual seats throughout the bus.  
"So why didn't they just change back at the concert? And what were you doing at the concert anyway?" Sam asked. "I thought you were working at home tonight and prepping things for that company party coming up" the girl stated, crossing her arms in confusion as she leaned against the wall behind her.  
"Things change. I needed to meet up with these guys" Jay stated bluntly with a poker face.  
"You worry me" Sam teased as she nudged Jay with her foot.  
"He should, he's your brother" Raph mumbled.  
The girl looked at Raph with a perplexed expression.  
"What are you talking about? He's not my brother" Sam said, her face scrunched as she blinked at Raph.  
Raph paused. He had been pacing around the bus (when did he ever sit still?) but was now standing still after turning to face Jay, who had puckered his lips as if saying 'oh shit.'  
Slowly the personal changes of this universe and theirs was being revealed.

"Uh, right. My bad. I was thinking of…my other Asian friend" Raph said.  
"Oh…okay" Sam stated. She found his response strange, but shrugged it off.  
Seconds later the bus stopped. Jay walked outside and smiled, relieved that the driver dropped them off exactly where he had asked. He was afraid the driver would not drop them off near the alley like he had been instructed, but the driver followed all instructions.  
Jay walked back onto the bus and directed the turtles where to hide. He then paid the driver a nice tip as thanks for following directions perfectly, and then he exited the vehicle to join the others.  
"Why are we hiding?" Sam asked nervously.  
Jay clapped his hands together and faced the girl.  
"Okay, so a lot is about to happen in a few moments. You weren't originally supposed to know about any of it but, things didn't go according to plan. Pleaseeeeee promise me you'll just roll with things for now and you'll ask questions later. And you also have to promise you won't freak out, okay?"  
Sam sighed. "Alright. I trust you with my life, so I'll roll with it" she said in a bothered yet cooperative and calm tone.

Jay then turned towards the turtles.  
"Alright, so my place is on the 8th floor. There's a fire escape that leads up to the room, it's on the wall at the back of the building. I'll have the window open so you guys can just climb through. It should be the window on your right."  
"Why can't they just walk up with us?" Sam asked, holding her hand in front of her to signal that that would obviously be the easier option.

"Hey! Questions later! Roll-"  
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever" Sam groaned in response to her friend.  
Donnie couldn't help but grin. This seemed more like their Sam. He made sure to quickly wipe the grin off his face though. He didn't want to do anything that would get the girl all riled up again.  
Jay and Sam entered the building, and within seconds the guys were already up the fire escape.  
Leo peeked through the open window to make sure they were in the right spot.  
He saw Jay sitting on the couch, so Leo slowly entered the room.  
Jay looked over and his eyes went wide when he finally saw the four gigantic turtles entering the room.  
"Whoa" he said as he stood up from the couch. He had no idea where he was going, but shock told him he needed to stand up.  
"Wait a minute. You weren't wearing that a minute ago" Donnie said as he pointed towards Jay.

That's when the door opened.  
Sam walked in first and threw her keys into a small bowl on a table near the door. She looked up and saw that the men in the costumes had entered in their odd way and that Jay was standing next to them…while Jay was also standing behind her.  
She pointed forward, and then just stood there.  
"Sam…" the Jay near the turtles stated. "Don't freak out now."  
Sam just stood there…and stood there…and then dashed.  
"Nope!" the other Jay stated as he quickly caught the girl.  
"Let me go!" Sam screamed as she flailed in his grasp.  
"Help please" Jay groaned aloud to the turtles as he struggled to prevent the flailing girl from fleeing the room.  
Leo and Raph dashed over and easily pulled the girl back into the room.  
"Let me go!" Sam continued to scream. She stopped thrashing once she saw Leo's expression change so that both he and Raph were holding her arms back, such fury and displeasure written on their faces from having to hold her back from running away.

They both scared the shit out of her, so shut her mouth in fear of either of them losing their cool and beating the shit out of her.  
She made sure not to make eye contact with either of them and instead looked down and out of the corners of her eyes.  
In doing so, she was both shocked and confused to see that the tallest of the four brothers was…was he blocking the shortest one?  
'Why?' she thought. 'Why are you standing that way? He's not in danger. What are you protecting him from?'

"What is she doing with you?" other Jay asked, bringing everyone back to their senses.  
"She happened to be where we landed. When your portal is shut down then apparently we must get thrown wherever. We're still learning about that" their Jay stated.  
"Wait, where did you land?"  
"Some warehouse where a concert was being held."  
"Ohhhhhhh" other Jay said as he pointed to the girl who now stood frozen like a statue since her older friend knew where she had been. "Oh I am so going to kick your ass! I let you live here and that's the crap you pull?"

"What's the big deal?" their Jay asked.  
"Even if our city is ten times safer than yours it's still not perfect. Especially at events like that. Someone could be stabbed and people would be oblivious because 'social events are a safe place.' People would get confused with screams of excitement and screams of terror."  
"Well that explains some of the defensive actions taken tonight."  
"What?"  
"Nothing, I'll explain later. But yeah, she was there and ironically ended up talking with one of the guys."  
"So you brought her here?"  
"Well I had to! She literally slapped two of them!"  
Both Jays were now glaring at Sam.  
"What the hell is wrong with you?" other Jay asked.  
"He touched me! And then he shoved me to the ground! And ow this hurts" Sam proclaimed.

The two brothers threw their hands up and walked away.  
"Okay it was a misunderstanding since your Sam is very different from ours" their Jay stated.  
"Wait, you didn't tell them about all the differences yet?"  
"It's on my to-do list!"  
"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!"

The two men turned to look at Sam who was fuming.  
"Explain what all this is, NOW! Or I keep screaming."  
The four brothers groaned as they stood near the couch.  
Sam glared at the four and pointed at them as she demanded "them first. Explain who they are first."  
"Sam calm down" the au Jay said.  
Then Mikey cut in.  
"Okay what do we even call you. Like, Jay 2?"  
"Not gonna lie, that sounds awesome" he said as he nodded to his alternate counterpart. "Except it would be J2 like the letter and the number. That's what makes it cool, like a code name."  
Mikey smiled. "Okay. Continue."  
J2 smiled at the way his guest spoke.

He then turned towards Sam and walked over towards her.  
"Okay, you know how sometimes I work on some projects I can't tell others about?" he asked.  
The girl nodded with wide eyes. "Yeahhhhhh, go on."  
"Well…we built this machine, and long story short, it lets us travel places."  
Sam looked confused. "You mean, like, to other parts of the world?"  
J2 shook his head. "Not that kind of travel. Space and time type travel."  
He paused for a moment so that Sam could try to make sense of what he just said, and her pale faced expression signaled that she was picking up on where this conversation was heading.  
"So you're saying that your clone over there is literally you from another world?" Sam asked as she pointed towards Jay.  
J2 nodded. "But you cannot tell ANYONE. This is serious shit Sam, you need to keep your mouth shut."  
"Really?" she asked as she tilted her head downwards to scowl at him. "I've kept secrets of yours since I was in elementary school. Give me some credit. Now tell me how those four dudes come into play."

"Ummm I'll take over on that part" Jay stated as he raised his arm halfway. "Ummm so there's this criminal group from our world known as the Foot clan. 17 years ago the clan conducted experiments on some baby turtles to test some toxic chemicals, and now-"  
"They're mutants?! Those aren't costumes?!" Sam exclaimed in shock.  
J2 quickly covered her mouth. "Keep your voice down."  
Sam just continued to stand there in disbelief. Her friend removed his hand from her mouth and after a few seconds she finally spoke.  
"But, doesn't stuff like that only happen in movies?"  
"Half the things in your city only happen in movies where we're from" Donnie stated lightly.  
"Okay, fair" she replied with a nod. She then stood still as her face displayed she was contemplating something.  
"Wait, if there's two Jay's…what about me?" she asked nervously as she pointed towards herself.  
"You're a lot nicer where we're from" Mikey grumbled.  
"Oh no" the girl said as her hands covered her mouth, now realizing that obviously these guys must have been good friends with her from this other world everyone was talking about. "That's why you were acting so comfortable earlier" she stated, her face immediately turning red.  
"Yup" Mikey replied in a disappointed tone.  
"I'm so sorry" she said, her hands now covering her reddened cheeks. "I had no idea. I mean, I know I was rough regardless but, well that's a story time for another day. Still, I'm sooooo sorry. To you as well" she said as she faced Donatello.  
Donnie grinned. He assumed that the girl must have had some not so great experiences that probably were triggered from Mikey's actions. Her sincere apologies now allowed him to truly forgive her for the events that happened earlier.

"It's fine. I mean I did call you a bitch after all" he said, rubbing the back of his head.  
"What the hell happened?" J2 asked.  
"That one took my helmet and touched my face, but I sorta know why now" Sam said as she pointed towards Mikey.  
"That one has a name" Raph grumbled.  
Sam turned to face him. She seemed a bit frustrated with his tone, but she said nothing of it, knowing that she hadn't had the best first interaction with any of the turtles. Which she was still wrapping her head around the idea that these guys were legitimately turtles and not men in costumes.  
"Right. Am I allowed to know your names then?" she asked sincerely.  
"I'm Leonardo, but call me Leo" Leo stated, bowing from his position where he stood behind the couch.  
"Raphael, call me Raph" Raph stated, barely raising his hand and his gaze from the floor to look at her as he spoke.  
"I'm Donatello" Donnie stated, standing near Leo and slightly raising his hand as well.  
"I'm Michelangelo, but nice ladies can call me Mikey" he stated while sitting on the couch.

"Got it" she said with a nod.  
"Tch, no you don't" J2 teased. "You suck at remembering names. You'll get them all mixed up in a matter of minutes.  
"Whatever" Sam said as she rolled her eyes and looked away from him. "So I'm going to go change out of this" she said as she presented her hand in front of her to reference her costume, "and then I want to know more about how all this happened."

J2 then turned towards the rest of the group as Sam exited the room.  
"So I apologize for any and all rude things she said and did tonight. She's had some bad experiences with guys making advances on her in situations where they could try to get the upper hand, but those aren't my stories to tell. I'm not telling you that to excuse her behavior, but just so that there's some understanding of why she would go crazy like that. She can be really nice, but as you've seen she can be set off quickly" he reassured. "I also just want to say how incredible it is to meet all of you. I've met Jay a few times now and I've heard about you four, but seeing you in person is…incredible" he said, his nerdier side revealing itself.

"Do you know anything about why we're here?" Leo asked.  
"Yes" J2 said as he reached for his back pocket. "I assume each of you got one of these communication devices today. I've had one for a few weeks, so Jay was able to update me immediately when…who are they again?"  
"Karai, Hun, and Tatsu" Jay reminded.  
"Right, he told me when they entered our universe. I'll do whatever I can to help you guys out and as quickly as possible. Have you guys determined any reasons why they would want to come here in the first place?"  
Donnie of course was the first to chime in.  
"There's a chance they're aiming to steal advanced technology from this universe and bring it back with them to ours. If that's the case then we need to track them down as soon as possible and stop them."

Just then the T-coms each went off.  
"Here I got it" Donnie said, "if one person answers it then we all can hear the same message."  
He pulled his device out of his pocket and clicked the blue button.  
"What's up guys?"  
_"Ummm we have a situation?" _came Justin's voice on the other end.  
"And that would be?" Donnie asked cautiously.  
_"Someone is a little sneak and got through to where you guys are, hehe. Have fun!" _Justin stated before disconnecting.  
"He doesn't mean-" Leo started.  
"Oh I think so" Donnie said with pursed lips.  
That fast a huge purple circle formed in the ceiling, and who else but their Sam dropped down from the ceiling.  
"Ow" she groaned since she had landed directly on her side. She slowly sat up and saw Donnie glaring at her. "Well hello, traitor" she said through smile of gritted teeth.  
"You hacked my computer" he stated, furry slipping through his voice.  
"You four are assholes *gasp* oh my-gosh are there children?" she asked as she quickly scanned the room. "No? Awesome. HEY YOU FOUR ARE ASSHOLES!" Sam exclaimed.  
"YOU HACKED INTO MY COMPUTER?!" Donnie shouted once more.  
"I've done that before!" Sam shot back.  
"Yeah, with my permission!"  
"Well it never would have happened if you jerks hadn't left me back home while you traveled to another freaking universe! Literally just saying that sentence sounds amazing! And you left me!"  
"Sam you knew the rules were that we would update you if and when your life is in danger" Leo cut in.  
"Yeah well there's mutagen running through my veins so I'm always in danger Leo" she said, adding a sarcastic tone to the way she said his name, which she learned very quickly was not appreciated in the slightest.  
"You kinda also had this thing called finals to worry about" Raph added.  
"Really, Grumpelstiltskin? I studied for weeks for each test! And there are make-up dates! Regardless, everything would have worked ou-"  
She was then cut off as she was hugged by Mikey.  
She stood there for a second before slowly placing her hands around him to embrace him in the hug.  
"Sweet cinnamon roll, who hurt you?" she asked.  
He backed away. "No one" he said with a fake smile. "Just glad you're you again."  
Sam paused and with a blank expression leaned to her side as she now realized that there were two of her brother standing behind Leo and Donnie.  
She then placed herself right back in front of Mikey and asked "you see two Jay's over there, right?"  
Mikey nodded.  
"Good, just checking. Hey look that way" Sam said as she pointed to her left.

Mikey did as told since he trusted Sam, but then flinched when he saw her right hand come up and was now inches away from slapping him.  
"Dude!" he said as he instantly turned back towards Sam. He now stood there in shock as Sam stared wide eyed at him in pained anger. She knew he would laugh it off if she pretended to slap him and that he wouldn't even flinch if she was the one standing in front of him, but his quick flinching reaction demonstrated that he had been harmed recently. There was no other explanation for him tensing up when she was right beside him.  
"Someone hit you" she stated solemnly. "Was it Raph?!" she said as she jumped and pointed at a now offended Raphael.  
"Why do you go straight to accusing me?" he asked gruffly.  
"Cause sometimes you can be a huge dick" she said nonchalantly.  
"The biggest" he said with a wink.  
"With that ego of yours, doubt it" Sam said with a wide-all teeth bearing smile.  
"Dude, the fuck?" J2 asked.  
"Well he's obviously compensating for something" Sam teased while Mikey grinned and nodded devilishly.  
"Unfortunately this is more common than you think" Leo groaned.  
"What?" Jay asked, just as shocked as his alternate counterpart.  
"I mean, wow guys that's super immature" Leo said, caring and not at the same time.  
Jay shook his head. "Wow. You've changed man" he said as he grabbed onto his shirt, signaling that his heart hurt.  
"Blame her. Her weird sense of humor rubs off on you after a while" Leo said with a grin.  
He then turned to hear Donnie continuing to argue with Sam.

"How did you do it? Did you wipe out everything?"  
"Mikey am I bleeding? Because it feels like I've been shot!" Sam announced, pretending to faint backwards as her best friend caught her.  
"Dude! She's been here for like 2 minutes!" Mikey protested.  
"She touched my things without permission and without me knowing what she did and how! Things in regards to the project in creating the portal along with programs and codes for hacking that have saved our asses numerous times are on that computer" Donnie stated.  
Sam groaned as Mikey helped her stand back up.  
"And you really think I would do anything to wipe all that out?" she said as she rolled her eyes. "Look, I used the code you showed me last month. It safely transferred everything to my computer, I read enough to know how to get myself in, and then I went for it."  
"How did you even get in the building?" Leo asked. "I've heard you and Donnie talk before and you said you didn't know how to hack a system like the one the building uses. So how could you get in the building without seeing someone plug in the combination?"  
"Ummmmmm lucky guess with the combination?" Sam awkwardly asked as her answer.  
"YOU HACKED MY SHOULDER CAM?!" Donnie exclaimed, knowing that would have been the easiest way for her to figure out the combination. "Since when could you even do that?"  
"Since you fell asleep during prank war week and I got ahold of it, and possibly took it apart and put it back together. This is where prank week continues! Surprise" she said shyly as she threw her hands up no higher than her shoulders in length, although Donnie made it clear he wasn't buying it.

"Your Sam is cool" J2 said with a chuckle. "My Sam can't code or do anything with modern technology really" he said with a sigh.  
"You!" Sam said as she pointed towards J2, "I will greet you in a second, but you!" she said as she pointed at Donnie, her expression softening, "someone hit you to. Damn Raph what did they do to piss you off?" Sam said as she turned to face him.  
Raph threw his arms up at his sides. "It wasn't me!"  
"It actually wasn't, and how can you even tell that?" Donnie asked with genuine curiosity.  
Sam shrugged. "I've known you guys for 2 years, I can tell when your colors change, and you and this one's cheeks are slightly darker" she said as she pointed back and forth between the two youngest brothers. "Now if it wasn't the Hulk over there that hit you, who did? I promise I'll kick their ass" she said as she punched one fist into her other hand.

Just then, there was a knock at the door.  
_"Sam? It's Kris, open up!" _  
The turtles looked at J2 since they didn't know what to do in this situation.  
"You guys hide wherever you can. You can go upstairs if you need to. Sam, how close are you to Kris back home?"  
"Super close, just like when we were kids."  
"Awesome. You talk to him then and do your best to get him to leave. I'm going to go distract my Sam so that she doesn't walk out and get Kris involved in all this."

J2 ran upstairs while the turtles all went and hid. Raph and Mikey hid in a nearby closet while Leo and Donnie crouched down and hid out on the fire escape.  
"I'll be nearby in the hallway in case you need help getting rid of him" Jay stated.  
Sam gave him a thumbs up and then walked over towards the door. She swung it open and smiled at Kris. He looked the same except for the fact that his hair was a bit longer and was styled so that is flowingly spiked up some at the top. He looked like a k-pop artist with that hairdo, but Sam was digging it.  
"Nice hair" she said as she leaned against the doorway.  
Kris laughed. "Well I hope so, you're the one that styled it this way. I've been doing everything you told me to so it would stay this way" he said as he walked past her and into the room.

Sam just stood there and then swung her arms to her left, the side of her facing the interior of the room.  
"Sure, come on in" she whispered sarcastically, since she never actually invited the man to enter the room.  
"So what happened tonight?" he asked as he sat on the back of the couch.  
Sam shut the door and walked so that she was standing closer to her friend.  
"You're gonna have to be a lot more specific buddy."  
Kris couldn't help but laugh at the way the girl spoke. She was acting differently and more comical than usual.  
"You said you had to fight some guy tonight because he touched you at the concert."  
Sam stood there, only blinking.  
"How did this fight go down?"  
"What?" Kris asked with a confused smile.  
"It's been a long night, so remind me of what I told you."  
He shrugged. "You said that you were talking to some guy and then he started touching your lips, so you slapped him and then he pushed you to the ground."  
Sam pointed to herself, astounded by what she just heard.  
"Me?" she asked.  
"Yeah."  
"I slapped a guy?" she asked, pointing at herself.  
"Uh-huh."  
"Just one guy?" Sam asked curiously.  
"Ummmmm oh! Now that I think about it, you said you slapped the guy and his brother" Kris said as he remembered the details of the messages he received earlier.

"Ohhhhh that's right" Sam said through gritted teeth as she ran her hands over her head where they then rested for a few seconds.  
"Do you have any idea who they were? If I had been there I'd have kicked their asses" Kris said, now sounding more serious and upset about the event.  
"Nope not a clue" she said with a fake smile, swinging her arms back and forth in frustration. "But you know it's been a long day, indeed" she said as she pursed her lips together. "If it's alright I'd rather just stay here with my brother rather than hangout" she said innocently, hoping her friend would leave and not be offended.  
Kris's face scrunched some. "What are you talking about? I saw your brothers earlier. I was with them when you texted me."  
Sam paused before looking him straight in the eye.  
"What did you say?"  
Kris snapped his fingers. "Ohhh you mean Jay, since he's like your brother. But hey since he isn't here yet…"  
Kris trailed off as he gently pulled Sam forward. Sam was clueless as to what he was doing and just went with it, until she realized he was pulling her in so he could kiss her.

Before Sam could even react, a soft pair of lips was now gently being pressed against hers. Sam was so mind blown that she had absolutely no clue how to react. She was shocked since she never expected Kris to kiss her, and she was scared because this was her first kiss and she had no idea what was happening or what she was doing. She then felt worry wash over her for a couple of reasons.  
For one, she was being kissed! Like, what does one do when being kissed? Cause right now she was basically standing there while Kris kissed her. Like, should she kiss back? How do you even do that? She was supposed to be acting as the other Sam, but did other Sam just stand there like she was now? She was mentally freaking out and had no idea what to do, so she just continued to stand there with her eyes shut tight. Apparently her alternate self was dating Kris so she couldn't just push him away, so she hoped that this would end soon as she just stood there and allowed him to keep kissing her…although his hands were now traveling up her back, and one was now under the back of her shirt.

The second reason she began to worry was because while Kris was tenderly kissing her, Sam heard some small ruffling noises being made from behind her. She assumed that either Raph or Mikey was about to beat the shit out of Kris…and then she sensed both Leo and Donnie silently open the window before they ran past where she was located by the couch. Luckily the two brothers who had been hiding on the fire escape were now far enough away and silent enough so that Kris didn't sense a thing, although that was also probably because he was very occupied at the moment. If both ninjas were running away from their hiding spots, then that meant BOTH Raph and Mikey were aiming to beat the shit out of Kris.

The door slammed rather loudly as the two brothers fought to keep the remaining two calm.  
Kris went to turn his head, but in fear of the turtles getting caught, Sam pulled his head back down so that he would continue to kiss her.  
'God this is so wrong and so weird!' Sam thought to herself. 'Like, howwwwwww?! How did I end up in this situation, and why am I dating Kris in the first place?!'  
She could feel Kris smiling through the kiss and as much as she liked that a smoking hot guy wanted to kiss her, she didn't like him that way and this also was the most awkward first kiss ever.  
She tried waving her hand to the side to signal for Jay, and thank god he caught the hint.

"Heyyyyy Kris! You're here, kissing Sam. Why?" he asked in an annoyed tone, which was evident even though he was smiling and moving around in an animated fashion.  
Kris pulled back and held onto Sam in a cuddly hug. He pulled her in so that her back was against his chest as he wrapped his legs around her. His chin lay on her shoulder while both teens faced Jay.  
"Sorry, I didn't know you were here. But Sam texted me about what happened" he said, holding onto her a little tighter as he thought about a guy trying to take advantage of her.  
"Oh, so I also guess she told you that she is grounded then?" Jay asked as he pretended to rummage through the fridge for something.  
Kris looked confused and pouted as he turned his head to face Sam.  
"You didn't tell me you were grounded. Are you trying to get me in trouble?" he teased. His smile softened as he realized that Sam's face was bright red.  
"Awwww, you still blush when I kiss you? God you're adorable" Kris said with a heart-warming smile as he then kissed Sam's cheek.  
"She is! And she's also grounded! Which means you need to get the heck out" Jay said comically yet with a touch of frustration in his speech as he slammed the door shut.  
"Alright I got it" Kris said as he stood up and stuck his tongue out at Jay. Before moving away from his spot, he turned towards Sam, shooting her a heartfelt and genuine smile. "Next time just call me instead of having me come over then. I need to stay on people's good side so that we can spend more time together" he said as he leaned forward and kissed Sam's forehead.  
"Right, my bad. I, uh, thought he would have left by now" Sam stuttered.  
"Don't worry babe, at least I got to see you for a little bit tonight" he whispered.  
Kris pulled her in for one last hug and then began to walk towards the door.  
"Text me when you get home" Sam called out.  
Kris turned towards her as he was now standing in the doorway.  
"Always do babe. Love you!" he called as he closed the door behind him.

That's when Raph and Mikey had pushed their way out of their other brother's grips and were now charging towards Sam.  
"What the hell was that?" Raph demanded.  
Sam faced the two as she threw her hands by the sides of her head.  
"You tell me! Like, what?!"  
"Sure looked like you enjoyed what happened for someone who's so confused!" Mikey declared.  
"Are you kidding me?! I had no control over that!"  
"You didn't say no" Raph stated.  
"Yeah I also didn't say 'hey Kris come suck on my fucking face' either!" Sam bit back sarcastically.  
"You should have kicked his ass then! He totally took advantage of you!" Mikey announced.  
"Well obviously he's dating alternate me, which how the hell did that even happen?!" Sam exclaimed.  
"He's not allowed over anymore. Dude doesn't know how to ask for consent" Raph growled.  
"Agreed" Mikey stated in fury. "Tch, and alternate you was mad at me? He had his hands all over her!"  
"Because they're dating" Donnie announced. "I can't imagine Kris doing that if the two were just friends."  
"Honestly I thought you'd be happy about it" Leo said with a bit of shock in his voice.  
Raph, Mikey, and Sam all turned and glared at Leonardo.  
"What? I thought you liked him" Leo stated honestly.  
Sam leaned forward and threw her hands forward. "When have I ever said that? How many times do I have to keep telling people I do not like him that way?!" Sam declared.  
"Awwww you've been traumatized" Mikey said, his angry expression softening.  
"YES! Like, what was I even supposed to do?! My first kiss is ruined" Sam pouted, crossing her arms and glaring down at the floor.

Leo turned towards Jay.  
"You gonna add anything?" he asked.  
"Naw, you guys are doing the 'brothering' for me again. Not much else for me to say. I low-key wanna kill Kris though" he said with a nod of his head and a twitch in his brow.  
J2 then reappeared.  
"Why are you all so loud?" he asked in concern.  
"Because Kris is scum and needs to be taught a lesson" Raph snarled.  
"Uhhhhhh" J2 said in confusion.  
"YOU DIDN'T SAY I WAS DATING HIM!" Sam announced, extremely loud and extremely fast.  
J2 still looked confused. "But you said you were still close with him like when you were kids."  
"Yeah! We're still good friends, but we're not dating!" Sam said.  
"Ohhh. Hehe, my bad. I assumed that you stayed really close just like my Sam did" he said, grabbing onto his arm from embarrassment since he could tell things must have been awkward for her based on her reaction to whatever had happened moments ago.

"Everyone is fine though" Leo reassured. "I think it's important that we discuss all the main differences between this and our universe though so that everyone is caught up with each other."  
J2 nodded.  
"Sam! Please join us!" he called out.  
Seconds later the alternate Sam entered the room.  
The original Sam's eyes went wide as she stared at her alternate self who was wearing little to nothing as she wore a sleeveless gray crop top that revealed her stomach and a pair of tiny black Under Armour running shorts.  
Sam, infuriated for a couple reasons, stood up, walked over to her alternate self who smiled and seemed as if she was about to speak, and then slapped her across the face.  
Au Sam just stood there in shock.  
Original Sam just smiled. "Hi. I'm Sam. That was for slapping two of my friends earlier today."  
"I apologized for that" au Sam said as she gently rubbed her hand against her now red cheek. She would normally have retaliated, but she knew she had that coming. "Are we good now?"  
"If you go change" Sam stated bluntly.  
"I'm sorry, what?"  
"You're almost naked! Like, you're barely wearing anything!" Sam proclaimed.  
Au Sam looked down at herself. "I'm wearing comfy clothes."  
"There's barely anything there!"  
"I'm in my house!"  
"And there's people here!" Sam announced as she waved her hand behind her towards the group of men who had no idea what was happening.

Mikey then walked in between the two women as he faced his best friend. He then smiled as he took steps forward.  
"What are you doing?" Sam asked.  
"Just walk away" he said as he continued to smile.  
"What?"  
"Just walk" he stated calmly, hands by his side as he continued to smile.  
Sam took a few steps back. She now realized that Mikey assumed the two girls were going to fight each other and thought he was preventing this from happening.  
"I'm not gonna fight her" Sam said with a chuckle.  
"Had us fooled" Raph said as he coughed into his hand.  
"That's because guys are always rough no matter what" au Sam said.  
Raph stared wide eyed at her as she made this comment.  
"Yeah, yeah. I sound like a hypocrite, I know" she groaned.

"What do we call her now?" Mikey asked.  
"S2? Since I'm J2" the man stated.  
"Man, women named Sam are interesting creatures" Jay teased as he lightly slapped his sister on the back of the head. "Play nice. These are allies in catching Karai and her followers."  
"Oh right. Have we learned anything about them yet?" Sam asked.  
"No. We're going to update everyone about everything that has happened and has been learned so far before we even enter that territory" Jay stated.  
"Get comfy. There's a lot to talk about" J2 stated as he guided everyone towards the living room.  
S2 began to shiver some.  
"Anyone mind if I close the window? It's getting chilly."  
"Psh, maybe if you were dressed properly" Sam mumbled.  
S2 shot her a frustrated look as she was shutting the window.  
"You're telling me you never wear comfy clothes?"  
Sam held her hands out to her sides as she looked down at herself.  
"I am in comfy clothes."  
S2 looked at Sam in disbelief as she observed what her alternate was wearing. Sam was currently wearing a light mint blue Adidas hoodie with black gym pants that were soft and form fitting that had the cuffs at the ankle while wearing Adidas brand skateboarding shoes (which were also soft as anything and so comfortable!)  
"You call those comfy clothes?" she scoffed.  
"Come feel me up! I'm soft and warm!" Sam announced, her arms lifted up high and outwards.  
"Oh my god get over here" Raph groaned.  
"Here, if you're cold then take this" Sam said as she lifted her hoodie up and over her shoulders and her head.  
"WHOA!" S2 exclaimed.  
"What's wrong?" Sam asked midway through taking her hoodie off. Her blue hoodie currently blocked her eyes so she couldn't see anything as she twisted and turned in fear of something going wrong and being momentarily blinded during so.  
"You're ripped!" S2 announced as she stared as her alternates stomach (which was once again exposed as Sam removed her hoodie, a problem that apparently occurred more often than she realized).  
"Cover yourself" Leo teased as he pulled Sam's shirt down so that her stomach was once again covered.  
Sam successfully removed the hoodie and then tossed it over to her alternate. She looked up at Leo with a smile and playfully pat his head as a thanks.  
He pursed his lips and looked at her in a way that told her to knock it off.  
Sam was now wearing a short sleeve pink Adidas shirt.  
"That's the one I got you" Mikey whispered to Sam, who was now sitting next to him.  
"That's because we have the same taste in fashion" she whispered back as the two silently fist bumped.  
"If you're sitting next to someone where you know you're going to talk then move now" Leo declared.  
Sam pouted as she then stood up and sat next to Leo instead, in which he then pat her head in mockery of how she had treated him mere seconds ago.

"So where does this story start?" S2 asked, now wearing Sam's mint blue hoodie.  
Donnie told everyone about Kraang from their universe and how his mutagen allowed him and some human friends to build the portal that transported them there.  
That's when J2 started sharing how he was working with some friends on a similar project. There was no specific reason as to why, just that they had the materials to do so, so their team was informed to lead the project. J2 more so worked on the construction of the project, but it allowed him access to one of the coolest thing he had ever partaken in, so he wasn't going to let the opportunity slip by him.  
He and his alternate then discussed how the two met and that both portals were open when this happened, hence their much simpler travel from one universe compared to the others when the group and when Sam entered the new universe. The other side of the portal had not been opened, so that's why the turtles and Jay, and then later why Sam was just dropped anywhere.  
"We're still learning about all that, so right now we don't really know why it dropped us off at the concert, or why it dropped Sam here where we were compared to the concert" Donnie stated.

"So are there any other major differences?" S2 asked.  
"Psh, how about the fact that you're dating Kris here" Sam scoffed.  
"Oh, I guess you're not dating him then?" her alternate asked.  
"Nope" Sam answered quickly.  
"Why?"  
"What do you mean why?"  
"Like, why didn't you guys stay as close friends that ended up dating?"  
"…I turned him down" Sam said matter of factly.  
"Wha-" Mikey began, about to question this newly learned information, but was cut off by Raph who knew Sam was obviously lying.  
"Oh, really?" S2 asked, sensing the same thing that Raph had. "Why?"  
"Too clingy" Sam answered.  
"I don't buy that" S2 said with a smirk. "Did something awkward happen? I can give you advice if you want to win him back" she said with confidence.  
S2 then saw Raph shaking his head with his hand near his neck signaling to 'cut it out.'  
"Thanks but no thanks. I don't need a man to make me happy" Sam said with confidence.  
"Says the girl surrounded by men besides for her alternate self" S2 mocked.  
Sam opened her mouth to retaliate…only to realize the girl made a point, so she just shrugged and chuckled. She then tried to change the subject and asked "soooo is this where you and your brother live?"  
S2 shook her head. "Nah, it's just me and Jay who stay here."  
Sam looked at her alternate with a perturbed look. "That's what I just said."  
"No you didn't" S2 said as she shook her head. "You said I lived here with my brother."  
"Yeah, Jay. Duh" Sam said rather rudely.  
"Jay isn't my brother, so you're wrong" S2 bit back.  
"What are you talking about? Why else would you live with him if he wasn't your brother?"  
"So that way I could have some privacy. I love my parents, but I'm 18 and in college. I want some space away from them knowing everything I'm doing every second of every day" S2 groaned.  
She then realized that all the turtles (except for Donnie who was looking down at the ground) and Sam were now staring at her as if they had seen a ghost.  
"What's wrong?" S2 asked.  
"Your parents?" Leo asked.  
"Yeahhhhh…" S2 lead on.  
Sam then got up and exited the room as she headed upstairs.  
S2 looked on with worry. "What is she doing?"  
"Looking for family photos" Leo said as he sunk into the couch. "So that's what you meant by what happened to her is different here."  
"It's what didn't happen" Raph said as he ran his hands over his head.  
"Oh my god" Mikey said as he now looked down at the ground, sadness written on every inch of his face.  
"Oh god what did I do?" S2 asked, assuming she had done something wrong and that was the cause of all four brothers looking so worried and upset.  
"It's okay, you didn't do anything" Jay reassured. "Things are just, very different here compared to where Sam and I live."

"Hey me" Sam stated as she re-entered the room. "You have a phone?"  
"Yeah."  
"Toss it here" Sam said as she put her hands in front of her.  
"Sure?" S2 questioned as she tossed the phone.  
Sam then walked towards the door and took the keys from the bowl next to it on the small table.  
"Thanks" she said as she opened and then exited through the door.  
"Wait! What are you!-"  
"She's going to see her siblings" Donnie said in dismay.  
Mikey looked up at his brother.  
"You knew about this?" he asked, almost in a whisper.  
Donnie nodded.  
"And you didn't tell anyone?" Mikey asked as he balled his hands into fists.  
"He was working on a classified project Mikey," Leo cut in. "You can't believe that he wanted to ignore a chance to let Sam see her family."  
Donnie looked at Mikey with a pained expression. "You think it's easy to walk around knowing you can't tell one of your best friends something like this? I've wanted to tell her from the second I found out. But if we did then she would have dropped everything and begged to be put on the project, and with her powers, she could-"  
"She has powers?!" S2 interrupted.  
She then slapped her hands to her mouth. "Sorry" she muttered.  
Donnie sighed.  
Raph cut in so that Donnie could calm himself. He faced Mikey with a sympathetic look.  
"Sam would have used her powers and would have done whatever she wanted and would have disrupted both the project and her own life. Hell, Jay and Donnie had to get Casey to try and stall so that Sam wouldn't leave her finals early to try and join us" Raph grunted.  
Jay looked over and saw that Michelangelo still looked down in dismay.  
"Mikey, it was for her and others safety that no one knew. Donnie isn't the only one who's been walking around with that secret in their back pocket. Sam would have let emotions take over and never would have listened to reason. I wanted to bring her here one day, but there needed to be a right time."

Mikey looked up at him, and then turned to face all the others.  
"I wonder what's going on in her head right now. Should one of us be watching over her?" he asked, now realizing that she would be wondering the streets alone.  
Leo shook his head.  
"Apparently things are safer here, and Sam is tough and can defend herself. In a while one of us can go after her if she hasn't returned, but right now she needs her space" Leo stated gently.  
Mikey displayed a look of dismay once more, but his expression softened when he felt Raph's hand on his shoulder.  
"She'll be fine. She knows how to reach us if she needs us" he reassured.

"Okay someone please tell me what I'm missing! Why did the other me just walk out without saying anything and why did she take my phone? And why do you all look broken? Like I don't mean to sound inconsiderate but I'm completely lost." S2 announced.  
J2 sighed.  
"Sam, I need you to listen carefully, because you're about to hear things that are going to be difficult to comprehend. Okay?"  
The girl's expression softened and changed to one of concern.  
"What happened to you guys?" she asked softly.  
Jay then took over in the conversation.  
"There's a group known as the Foot back where we're from. They're a horrible group of people lead by a terrible man who goes by the name Shredder. He has a lot of followers, including a rich man who pays for research and test trials for whatever he needs. He made a toxin that ended up turning these guys into what they are now. He also did a lot of bad things and hurt a lot of people…"  
Jay had to pause for a moment, since the next part focused on him as well, and even now it was difficult for him to talk about.  
"Years ago when I was only 15, I witnessed a Foot robbery. Assuming that trusting the police was the best thing to do, I reported the robbery. As a result, Shredder had my parents killed so that it looked like an accident."

Sam instantly covered her mouth with her hands as she heard this news.  
"At that point, Sam's parents adopted the four of us and we all became siblings. Unfortunately the Foot wasn't done with me yet. They manipulated people into working for them in all types of ways. In my case, it was black mail. They said that I had the choice to work for them or not, and of course I said no. Because I chose the wrong answer, they killed Sam's parents who at the time were my legal guardians."  
It was obvious that the girl was becoming teary eyed as her eyes became red.  
Being the gentleman that he was, Leo walked over and brought the girl a box of tissues.  
She briefly smiled at him before turning back to Jay to hear the rest of the story.

"At that time I was 17, which means Amber was 19 and Jamie was 21. That meant they were both able to legally be deemed as guardians for the rest of us. For two years I was forced to work for the Foot so that they wouldn't harm anyone else in my family. No one I cared about knew that I was working for the Foot. I worked as hard as I could, being the third oldest sibling, to help my older sisters make enough money to provide the necessities so that we could all survive. Everything was beginning to work out since the 8 of us had each other…"  
That's when Jay's voice began to trail off. He had already forced himself to tell this story a couple years ago when he approached the turtles in regards to saving Sam, and he wasn't sure he had it in him to tell the story again.

"They still treated him like crap even though he was working for them as a dedicated soldier" Leo cut in. He first looked over at Jay to gain approval to tell the rest of the story.  
Jay nodded to Leo before then closing his eyes tight to prevent himself from crying.  
"While Jay was trying to provide for his family, Shredder didn't think he was dedicating enough time towards the Foot. So he eliminated the problem" Leo stated, changing his tone as he said the last three words to emphasize how disgusted he was with Shredder's decision.  
"Jesus" Sam said as she now covered her eyes with her hands. "So who got hurt next?" she asked softly.  
"All of them" Raph muttered.  
Sam then turned and faced him, removing her hands from her eyes.  
"What did you say?" she asked.  
"Shredder purposefully had his men take out all of Jay's siblings but one" he stated. "She didn't even know why everything had happened until a couple of years ago. Jay kept her in the dark to keep her safe, but told her everything when the Foot was taken down from the inside."  
"And Sam was crazy enough to join to protect her brother" Donnie said lightly.  
"She joined?! Why!?" S2 asked hysterically.

"Because she wasn't going to leave Jay behind and run away when he was in danger" Mikey stated.  
He and the girl were now facing each as they sat on opposite sides of the group.  
"She didn't even tell us once she found out because she didn't want to lose our trust, since we had only known for so many months at that time. She hoped things would go by quick enough that we would never know, but things went south really fast. She got hurt really bad and in the end she needed mutagen to save her life-"  
"Save her life, as in she lost her life?" S2 asked.  
Mikey nodded his head.  
"Holy shit" S2 said as she slumped back slowly into the couch. "No wonder she cares about you guys so much. Sounds like you guys became her support system after all of that" she almost whispered.

"Luckily that's the bulk of the bad differences" Jay stated, finally calm and able to talk once more. "Sam's been through a lot, so just be careful in how you approach her and what you say."  
"Of course" S2 agreed.  
"So the other main change is that these guys unfortunately don't exist in this universe since the Foot doesn't exist here, so they never held their experiments that lead to your mutation" he said as he faced the guys.  
"The only other main change is that I'm married and I have two kids" Jay said with a small smile.  
"What?" S2 asked in shock.  
"Oh yeah, you owe me pictures!" J2 stated.  
"Oh man, I didn't even think of that!" Mikey stated. "We can't see the kids while we're here" he said as he began to pout.  
"They're not gone forever Mikey" Donnie reassured, "they just aren't in this universe."  
"Are you married to Brenda?" S2 asked her alternate friend.  
Jay laughed. "Yes I'm married to Brenda. We have a son named Keno who is a little over 3 months old now, and we adopted a daughter named Renet who just recently turned 5. Here, this is them" he said as he handed the alternates a picture.  
The two then began to "oooh" and "aww" as they looked at the two children.

"Alright, I believe those are all the changes that everyone needs to know about. Now we can start discussing what's going on with these villains" Jay stated.  
"Do you guys have any major ideas as to why they would have traveled to our universe?" J2 asked.  
Donnie nodded. "Back where we're from there was an alien named Kraang who tried to take over the world. We stopped him, and as he returned back to his dimension, he took the leader of the Foot clan back with him. Shredder, the clan's leader, had some loyal followers that continued to work with him after the Foot fell, and I suspect they're here because they can take advantage of the advanced technology that your universe possesses."  
"Is there anything specific that has high value here that might be a main target?" Leo asked.  
J2 leaned back into his chair. "That's the thing. You have to be way more specific since there are multiple energy sources, minerals, scientific studies and theories and materials used to test them that are valuable depending on their purpose. Is there anything that they may be searching for in particular?"  
"Weren't you saying something earlier about them finding a way to reach Kraang?" Raph asked.  
Donnie nodded as he then stood up and walked back towards the table in the kitchen. The others followed as everyone took a seat at the table. 

Donnie sat at the head of the table. Down the left side sat Leo, Jay, and Mikey, and along the right side sat J2 and Raph. S2 sat the other end of the table as she listened to the group hold their conversation.  
Donnie fidgeted with some of the controls on his watch as bright lights displayed pixelated images for everyone to look at.

"These three images show the pieces of the portal Kraang used to travel to our dimension. However, from what Casey, a friend of ours back home who is a cop, what he told us a while back is that the pieces were taken by the Foot clan before the forensics team could arrive to retrieve and inspect them."  
Jay nodded. "So that means if Stockman, their scientist slave" Jay said as he nodded towards the human alternates so that they understood what was being discussed each time a new name was introduced "was able to work on those pieces and he finds some type of energy source, then they can re-open the portal without Kraang's assistance."  
"Wait," Mikey cut in, "why can't they just put the pieces together like they did the first time? I mean that's all they did, right? They didn't have anything fancy to add to it."  
"We don't know that for sure though" Donnie stated. "The pieces could have already had something within them such as mutagen. In fact," he said as he grabbed his T-com. "Anyone copy?" he asked as he pressed the blue button, connecting him to his friends back in his home universe.  
_"We copy D. What's up?" _came Logan's voice through the small device.  
"If you can, contact Casey and April and see if they can access anything from the files that were collected from Stockman when he went missing. We need to see if Stockman kept files about what made up the device he originally had for his teleportation device before he was introduced to the remaining two pieces."  
_"Got it. I'll update you if we find anything out."_

__"Why do we need to access Stockman's notes?" Jay asked.  
Donnie put his device back into one his millions of pockets.  
"If Stockman kept notes about his research, which I'm very confident he did, then he would have left all types of notes about what made up that device and how it worked. He probably won't have any information about the remaining two pieces, but just knowing how one piece worked is enough to figure out what types of materials Karai is going after while she's here."  
"Whoaaa" J2 stated aloud.  
The others turned to face her.  
"What?" Raph asked.  
"Dude is smart" she said in astonishment.  
"Right, you're new. Have to remember that" Raph stated.  
"If that is why they're here," Leo began, "then that must mean the other pieces he still has are broken. Why else would they be trying to find an energy source, right?"  
"That's the thing, this is all assumption" Donnie said in a worried tone as he leaned forward, his elbows resting on the table as his hands ran over the top of his head.  
"But it's a start, and that's better than nothing" Jay added. "So where do we go with what we know?"

Donnie paused for a second. "For now we just search. We need to be ready and we need to be prepared for anything to happen at any moment. We have no idea where Karai is, so any place I can access security footage from is where we watch. We search for articles about suspicious figures, but we also look up articles and reports that state what the different and most recent discoveries are in regards to energy sources. That way we have an idea of what resources are even available here. Then look up where those resources are located, that might give us a hint as to where any of the three will strike."  
"Do we have enough devices for that?" Raph asked, his brow raised in curiosity.  
"I have a few small ones. Knowing Sam, she probably has some light ones with her as well."  
He then turned towards J2 and asked "is there anywhere we can go that will grant us a ton of computer access?" he asked.

The man nodded. "We have a spot underground. Now that it's later it might actually be safer to take you guys there now. You guys have a lab that's' above ground, well ours is under. We have some safe spaces we usually hide out in just in case someone dangerous would come in for whatever reason. I can take you guys there, and then tomorrow when they're all awake, I can get access from them to bring you as many devices from our lab as I can."  
"This sounds awesome" S2 stated bluntly, her jaw slightly open from hearing how 'fancy' and high-tech things sounded.  
"Sam, you're staying here" J2 stated.  
"What?! Why?!" she protested as her hands slammed down on the table.  
Leo sent her an apologetic look. "Look, I know we just met you and all, but you're, well-"  
"Not good enough?" the girl pouted, crossing her arms.  
"Human" he huffed.  
S2 calmed her stance some. "Oh…right. Wait, but so is your friend. She's the same as me."  
"Pfft!" Raph clenched his fists as he sat with his arms crossed and as he pursed his lips together tight as a means to not laugh at the clueless girls comments.  
Mikey straight up just threw his hand to cover his mouth.  
"What is so funny?" S2 demanded.  
"Honey you don't know shit!" Mikey said as he laughed out loud.  
"Excuse me?" she asked fiercely.  
"Shut up dude, shut up" Raph whispered as he playfully kicked his brother under the table.  
"Really?" Leo asked dully as he looked down the table at Raph, "I expected this from him, but from you?"  
"She thinks they're the same, and she's very wrong. Sorry I find that so damn funny, fearless" Raph bit back.  
"Guys, we're not doing this right now" Jay said as he smiled through gritted teeth.  
"I thought I knew all the major differences. What don't I know?" S2 asked, turning her head so that she faced each person at least once, desperate for answers.  
"We mentioned that our Sam has powers, from when the mutagen saved her life. And instead of reminding you of that, the two dorks beside you would rather just laugh" Donnie groaned.  
"Sweet!" J2 announced.  
"What happened?" Jay asked.  
"I used a private server to contact my colleagues, we have access to any and all devices we need. The sooner we get below ground the sooner we can use those devices to search for Karai and any resources she may be after."  
"Pack it up" Donnie said as he stood up.

Everyone stood up and discussed how they would exit the building. Leo, Raph, and Donnie were going travel down the fire escape and would meet the Jay's in the alley way down below. They would travel through the sewers and would gain access to the building where they would all carry as many devices and materials needed for hacking databases and security footage as they could to a designated safe space.  
S2 was about to protest that she wanted to join in on this badass mission, but then she realized that the orange one was sitting on the couch.  
"Hey, Leo" she said as she nudged one of the turtles.  
"I'm Donnie, but what's up?" he asked.  
"Why is Raph sitting on the couch?" she asked with genuine curiosity.  
"Raph is over here" the red bearing turtle grumbled. "MIKEY is sitting on the couch because he's not leaving until Sam gets back."  
"Why? Can't you guys just message her with one of those shell looking phone things?"  
Donnie chuckled. "The T-coms? Yeah, we could. But Mikey and Sam are best friends, so he knows she's gonna be emotional after seeing her siblings since, well since she lost them" he said.

The alternate noticed immediately that as Donnie said this that all the brothers, including Donatello himself, looked as if they themselves were broken.  
"You all really care about her, don't you?" she asked softly.  
All three brothers then looked at her.  
"She's Mikey's literal best friend, but she's family to all of us" Raph grumbled. He then looked down out the window. "I see them, let's go."  
Leo turned towards the girl as his brother exited the room.  
"Sam's basically a sister to us. 3 out of us 4 had a hard time getting to know her, but she's a good person. If anything happens to her, we'd go bat shit crazy on whoever did anything to her. Hence why it hurt that one when you called him a freak" Leo said. He didn't say it in a nasty way, but more so in a tone so that the girl would understand Mikey's earlier actions.  
S2 understood completely and nodded as Leo grinned at her before jumping out the window.  
"She's our sister. Family is everything, especially when you're mutant turtles. Mikey will bring her down once she's ready to join us" Donnie said with a smile. "You on the other hand need to stay here where you're safe. You're definitely different from our Sam in more ways than one."  
He smiled at her as he spoke, and then that fast he was gone.

S2 stood there for a second and watched how swiftly and quickly the three turtles moved as they descended from the fire escape and made their way down the building. Seconds after that, they disappeared underground through a manhole covered entrance into the sewers.  
"I'd close the window if I were you. Never know who can see and who can snatch" Mikey stated as he got comfy on the couch.  
"Right" S2 said as she then carefully shut and locked the window.  
She then walked over towards him and sat next to him on the couch.  
"Hey, can we talk?"  
He shot her a strange look, but then shrugged and said "alright" as he sat in a more proper way compared to his more slouched position he was in a second before.

"Um, I just wanted to truly apologize for how I talked to you earlier tonight. I don't really want to go into detail, but I've had some not so great experiences with guys and our conversation and the way you were trying to touch me, it just triggered some not so great memories."  
As she looked at Mikey she now realized how tense he looked.  
"Oh my god, were… were you?"  
"Don't worry I wasn't raped or anything, that rarely ever happens here. I was sort of assaulted though, almost forced to do things I didn't want to. It's very rare here, but sadly there are some areas where it happens if you stay there at the wrong times of the day. I was dumb and put myself in one of those places at a really bad time when I shouldn't have been there."  
"You know it's not your fault right?" Mikey said attentively, staring the girl in the eyes the entire time they talked.  
"I know," she said nervously, "but I should have known better. I was there for a dumb reason that I'd rather not discuss right now" she said, looking down as she rubbed her hands against her knees.  
"I got you, I respect that."  
S2 smiled as she looked back up at him. "I can see why my alternate is best friends with you, you're a sweet guy. She's lucky to have you." She then looked back down as she clenched her hands together. "Which is also why I feel horrible about the way I treated. I'm so, so sorry."

Mikey chuckled. "If it means anything, Sam launched a manhole cover at my head when we first met, and then she spun and kicked me right across the face."  
"And you two ended up on good terms?! Cause your brother said it was the other three that had a rocky start with her" she said with wide eyes.  
"Ha, that's so true! But yeah. I mean there's reasons why all that happened, hell the four of us have so much history with her now that someone could write a book or make a movie about all of it" he said as he put his hands behind his head and leaned back against the couch. "I do forgive you by the way. Besides, there were things you didn't know about that added to it, I can't hold that against you."  
"Please tell me" the girl stated.

He titled his head so that he was just glimpsing at the girl from the corner of his eye, a playful stance to be in.  
"Wellllllll," he said, quickly leaning forward as if he was about to 'spill the tea.'  
"So when my brothers and I were growing up, we were able to watch t.v. due to Donnie's genius in being able to rewire and fix anything in regards to inanimate objects and physical medical injuries. Whenever we watched shows with monsters or any creatures that were abnormal, they were always called freaks or monsters, or whatever. My brothers learned that that meant we needed to stay away from humans, or at least prevent ourselves from being seen so that we wouldn't scare anyone off, even if we were saving their lives" he said as he rolled his eyes at the thought of someone insulting and being scared of him while literally saving their life.  
"Anyway, what I learned was that humans feared us and would want nothing to do with us" he gulped. "My brothers have always been able to handle reality much better than I could. Even so, I've always wondered what it would be like to be accepted by others for who I am. We met one woman who actually took care of us before we mutated and we befriended her, but being friends with Sam is a whole other story."

"She gave you the acceptance that you needed" S2 said, twisting her body so that she was leaning into the couch, sitting in a much more comfortable position now that she and the mutant turtle were becoming more acquainted with each other.  
"She gave me more than that" Mikey said with a smile. "She gave me someone I could turn to when I'm afraid to talk to my brothers about my problems, someone who will genuinely laugh at my jokes or let me know when they're not funny, someone who equally likes the same things I do and then introduces me to new things which I end up loving, someone who participates in activities that I enjoy and can handle my ridiculously high energy levels."  
Mikey chuckled at his last sentence, thinking back to times when Sam was just as hyper and crazy as he was. "And you wanna know what the best part of it all is?" he asked.  
"That the feeling was mutual" S2 said with a wide smile on her face.  
Mikey was a bit shocked. "How'd you know?" he asked in pleasant surprise.  
She shrugged. "Lucky guess" she giggled. In her mind however, she thought of how Kris made her feel the same way.  
Mikey shook his head and chuckled. "Some of the ways she shows it is insane. Like, okay! There was this one time when my brothers and I were surrounded by police officers, and this was the first time the police had ever seen us, so they were all freaked out, and because of that there were a couple who started calling us monsters" he stated, now animatedly explaining the situation with his hands.  
"Oh no" S2 said.  
"Hold on, listen!" Mikey said in excitement. "So Sam could sense how upset I was, and at the time we were all still learning a lot about her powers. She couldn't control them all the time, and at that moment her powers kicked in with this want to protect me. That's when this huge gust of wind went whoosh!" he exclaimed, thrusting his arms to the side to emphasize the strength of the wind.  
"Dang, your friend sounds badass" S2 laughed. "I wish I had powers like that."  
"Oh, Sam was a badass even before she got powers. Her powers just emphasize her badassery."

The two continued to talk and get to know each other. If someone were to walk in, they would have no idea that these two were feuding and that S2 had slapped and insulted Mikey mere hours before.  
But that's just how Mikey was. He was a kind soul who took the time to get to know someone, as long as they were willing to talk and make amends, that is. His other brothers would be more stubborn and would make someone really challenge themselves to want to stay around and get them to let the person in, just like they had tested Sam and had made it difficult for her to get them to open up to her. But Mikey had always been much easier going and willing to get to know and accept others, and at the moment, S2 was very grateful for that.

It was now about 12:00a.m. The two were still talking on the couch when the apartment door slowly creeped open. S2 noticed that Mikey tensed up and how his hand instantly reached for his back where his weapons were held, but his hand retracted immediately once he saw that it was Sam who was entering the room.  
She dragged her feet as she dully walked through the doorway.  
Mikey gingerly stood up and began to walk towards Sam. "Hey. How'd it go?" he asked cautiously.  
Sam just stood there for a few seconds, staring forward blankly. She finally brought herself to face Mikey as she began to speak, pain and anguish evident in her voice.  
She shook her head. "I couldn't even talk to them. I texted them where to meet me, and I just stood outside. I saw each of them, and I just couldn't bring myself to talk to them. I…I don't know why" she muttered with a quivering lip as she took a step forward.

Her arms were still by her side, but Mikey knew that Sam was in a lifeless state. He caught her as she basically fell forward, completely emotionless, and he held her.  
He stood there and held onto her, not moving unless she signaled that she was ready for her to let her go.  
S2 watched from back on the couch and was amazed at the scene that had just unfolded in front of her. There was no communication about what the girl needed, and yet the mutant knew exactly what she needed in this moment: to be held silently while she pieced herself back together after seeing her siblings in the flesh after having them stolen from her years before.  
And the main thought that kept coming back to her mind was that this is how she and Kris were. They were also able to take care of each other without even speaking one word. She found this pair very interesting and she wanted to keep an eye on them. She assumed they were an item, but wasn't quite sure since no one had made any comment about this, not even Michelangelo himself when it was just the two of them sitting alone on the couch together.

"Thank you" Sam said, finally speaking and breaking the silence as she also ended her stillness as she slowly wrapped her arms around the mutant in front of her.  
"Of course" he whispered, holding onto her a little tighter.  
"Um, hey" S2 intervened awkwardly.  
"Shit" Sam whispered as she quickly pulled away from Mikey, feeling a bit embarrassed for letting a stranger see her emotional side.  
"Sorry, sorry" S2 said in a bit of a panic. "I just, I can't imagine what you're feeling but…if you want a second chance to see all of them, I can arrange something" she said cautiously.  
Sam's eyes went wide.  
"You…you would do that for me?" she asked, her lip beginning to quiver once more.  
"Of course" S2 said gently. "Besides, I kinda owe you for hurting your brothers" she said with an awkward smile.  
Sam couldn't help but let out a short laugh. She walked up and threw her arms around her alternate.  
"Thank you" she said as a sole tear rolled down her cheek.  
"Ahhhh so you are a hugger like me" S2 teased as she hugged her alternate back.  
"Yeah" Sam chuckled, "but you know what I'm not"  
"What?"  
"Cold. Now go put some real clothes on" Sam said as she pat the girl on the shoulders.  
S2 laughed. "Why? It's not like I'm going anywhere."  
Sam was taken aback. "Oh? So you don't wanna join us on the greatest adventure of your life?"  
"What?" S2 asked in excitement.  
"Uhhhhhh Sam? What are you doing?" Mikey asked nervously.  
"Bringing my alternate self with us below ground. Donnie texted me and updated me on everything that's happening."  
"Yeah, and I'm sure he told you not to bring your alternate underground with us."  
"Yeah, and I lied and told him I wouldn't." She then spun around to her other self. "I trick him like that a lot" she said with a wide smile.  
"Ohhhhh we're going to get along very well" Sam said as she threw her arm around S2's shoulder. "Now let's go change you into something much more comfortable."  
She laughed as her alternate rolled her eyes as the two headed towards the bedroom.  
Mikey just plopped back down onto the couch as he held his head in his hands, thinking the whole time about how much his brothers were going to kill him.

**I'M BACKKKKKK!**

**Oh my god! So much of this chapter has been sitting on my laptop for like, what, 5 months now? But FINALLY this past semester ended and I can finally sit in front of my laptop because I want to again :')**

**Hopefully if you were a past reader than you will return and continue to enjoy the series. Sorry if you though I disappeared on you, I just had to go to college and I enjoyed working with my kiddos, but man this semester has been tough on me -_-**

**I'm just glad to be back :D  
Let me know what you think, and I hope I'm able to write much MUCH more throughout this summer! :D **


	3. Chapter 57

**Any references to TMNT or anything from popular media and culture is NOT MINE. I only own my OC's. Any references to "TMNT Out of the Shadows" DO NOT BELONG TO ME. Only my additions that I came up with myself belong to me. Anything from the films or other series ARE NOT MINE, only my OC's and my ideas that I have added onto the story FOR FUN. ****  
****Thank you. **

****Chapter #57

***Still Friday May 20****th****, 2016. Alternate Universe, 12:00a.m. The Argosy Hotel***

****Karai stepped into the shower. It had been a long and emotion filled day and right now she just needed to relax.  
First came the break out. Her and Hun's plan had worked. Hundreds of ex-foot soldiers had come together and rejoined the clan after learning that their master had been taken away and went undercover both as inmates and as cops in order to help Tatsu escape.

It was tough for her to get over that she left Hun alone once they got Tatsu out. In order for their plans to play out perfectly, then right now only Tatsu could leave.  
Stockman was back home and worked along with herself and Hun as all the plans were made months ago, and as long as all his calculations were right, then he and Hun would handle things back in their universe while she and Tatsu completed their portion of the plan here.

She felt a shiver run down her spine as she thought of her lover. It had been months since she had even heard his voice, so she was grateful that this plan included the two of them working together, and only together while in this new world.  
Using the gadgets that Kraang had provided her, she and Tatsu were able to escape to this new world with ease, and once they found a cheap hotel to stay at, everything was finally, momentarily, at peace.  
Both had quickly tossed all materials to the side of their bed and had rapidly shed their armor, craving the others bare touch.

Just as Karai thought of the man's lips, she then felt them against her neck once more.  
"Round two already?" she groaned as she lathered up a cloth to wash herself.  
"I missed you to" he teased as he removed the wash cloth from her hands.  
She frowned as the man began to gently run the cloth along the women's arms.  
"We allowed you to stay there far too long" she said sorely, wrapping her arms around herself in guilt.  
"Hey" Tatsu said as he turned the woman around, cupping her cheeks in his hands. "You did everything you could, and from what I saw today, you've been doing a hell of a job. There's only so much that a small group can accomplish. What's important is that we're here, together. It's just the two of us right now."  
He pulled her in and wrapped his arms around her.  
"We're together now and that's all that matters. And once we succeed, we will continue to stay together once we return home."  
Karai couldn't help but chuckle. "How can such a blood thirsty man be so kind and gentle?" she questioned as she kissed him along his collarbone.  
Tatsu shuddered from the touch and carefully grabbed a fist full of the woman's hair.  
"Men can change drastically when they find the woman they want to love till the day they die" he said, pulling her head back so that he could kiss her.

He held onto her as he pinned her back to the wall of the shower. What started as a passionate kiss turned to one of lust within seconds. Smooth glides of hands against skin soon turned into hands grabbing onto the others body. Karai's nails dug down the man's back as he pressed his pelvis against her body and she felt him, hard against her.  
Tatsu kissed Karai along her shoulder and once he worked his way up to her ear he whispered "and you complained to me about round 2" before seductively grazing his teeth along her ear lobe.  
"Then shut me up" she demanded, lust revealing itself in every word she spoke.

Eventually the two would have to discuss the next part of their plan, but for tonight, it was just them. No allies, no enemies, just the two together. It had been too long since the two had heard each other, touched each other, tasted each other, and tonight was the night to make up for lost time. It didn't matter if the world was falling apart, nothing was going to interrupt what these two had in store for each other.

***4 days later, Tuesday May 24th, 2016. Underground lair/J2's underground lab***

****It was easy for Sam to lead herself, Mikey, and her alternate to the secret underground lab where the rest of the group was located. She had brought her bag filled with tech and weapons with her on her journey to this alternate dimension, so she was prepared for almost anything. This included a pen she had with a laser that could knock out camera sensors so that nothing would go off and alert others where her group of three was currently located as they maneuvered their way through the sewers.

Of course, everyone else was mad at Sam for bringing her alternate underground, and they were equally as upset with Mikey who didn't have the back bone to argue with Sam about the matter. Of course, he also had additional motives for not arguing about the subject, that motive being that after spending some time getting to know this alternate, he no longer thought she was such a bad person. While waiting for Sam to return to the apartment, Mikey had gained a chance to get to know S2 better as both shared information about each other to the other, and being the sweet cinnamon roll boi that he was, he decided that they had all gotten off on the wrong foot and that she deserved a chance at redemption. It wasn't like when he and his brothers had met their Sam for the first time that everything went over all peachy keen like either, so it was only fair to give this Sam a second chance just like he had given his now best friend a second chance.

S2 wasn't able to contribute much to all that was going on, but she definitely enjoyed the show that this group of misfits put on for her.  
When she first entered this incredibly huge lair space (how could Jay keep all this from her?!) she listened in as the group discussed their plans.  
She heard Donnie and Sam explain to the group how they needed to be on the lookout for various energy sources, updated machinery, or other various discoveries in the scientific community that may be of interest to the villains so that they could open a new portal, the assumed motive for arriving in this new dimension.  
Each member of the group would contribute in some way by either communicating with connections, researching articles, searching endlessly through social media, and things of the like.  
Sam and Donnie had the cool jobs (at least in S2's opinion) since they were hacking into security cameras all throughout the city as well as hacking and downloading documents from multiple different companies which they then had others read through and analyze in order to see if the documents held any significance to their search.

S2 was mesmerized by the way this group worked so well together as a team. They took shifts, they made sure that each group member was evenly challenged so that everyone was contributing in a way that was most beneficial to the team. She was also intrigued as she learned about the groups daily habits.  
Each morning the group would meet together for a morning sparring session for a couple of hours as a means to continue their training that they would usually complete back at home.  
She couldn't help but giggle whenever she heard any of them talking to their father. Apparently the great hogosha known as April took one of their turtle coms with her and gave it to their father named Splinter so that each day they could update him about what was going on and if he had heard any news back at home. Each of them was always so excited and yet so concerned as they talked to their father through the device.

As she observed these group activities, she also began to see each of the groups individual personalities emerge.  
While Leo was addicted to tea, his katanas, martial arts, candles and Asian gardening (apparently there were a lot of different types of small Asian trees that one could own and take care of), Raph was addicted to energy drinks, working out, knitting, and sports, Donnie was addicted to coffee (all kinds), pretty much any Asian drink or snack/candy delicacy, technology and organization, and Mikey was addicted to movies, Orange Crush, skateboarding, the arts and apparently literally anything that was colorful or made noises.  
S2 found it interesting that the brothers made sure to take shifts keeping him occupied since he could only focus on the assignment at hand for so long and then began wanting to touch more colorful buttons on the incredibly complex computer systems that were set up all along one wall of this lair, as the turtles called it. 

What amused S2 the most was that Sam was always the first to volunteer to hang out with Michelangelo whenever he got bored. However, Leo, Raph, or one of the Jay's always cut in before she could move away from her spot at the computer. This was because Sam was the second smartest person in the group and she was needed to work as swiftly and quickly as Donnie could. Of course, the girl needed to take breaks. Unlike the purple bearing turtle who rarely ever left the computer, Sam needed to take breaks and calm her mind after sitting in front a screen for hours.  
This was the part that would then would then amuse S2 the most. She enjoyed observing how Sam interacted with each of the four turtle brothers. Even though these guys were mutant turtles, even she had to admit that each of them was muscular as hell and had something going for them in regards to looks.

Leo's and Mikey's blue eyes were god damn gorgeous! Each of the four brothers had large muscles and were plenty tall enough to S2's liking. Leo was definitely the most mature and protective which was very appealing. Raph was definitely the toughest and bared the most muscle which also protruded a sense of safety in knowing that Raph could defend himself and others, and his deeper raspy voice was a plus. Donnie was thin, but still extremely muscular, allowing him to pull off a unique look that most men couldn't. Although S2 was a sucker for blue eyes, Donnie's were equally as gorgeous when he removed his glasses, and the glasses themselves allowed him to pull off a cuter but still handsome and intelligent look. And then there was Mikey who always had a smile on his face, a bright and eye catching one at that, which added onto his toned body.  
Honestly, S2 was a bit jealous that Sam was able to hang out with these guys as much as she did. However, these mutants were basically the equivalent to the huge group of guys that she was always hanging out with, both at dance rehearsals and also because of the many male friends that she and Kris had grown up with.

What was extremely different between S2's group of male friends and Sam's relationship with the turtles was how they all acted around each other. The sibling relationship between the girl and the turtles was obviously seen, but then there were unique times where it seemed like things were more than just that. The odd thing was that it wasn't like S2 noticed 'more than friendly' moments between her alternate and one of the turtles, but with all of them.

On Friday night, the very first night they had all met, S2 assumed that there had to have been something more between Mikey and Sam based on the fact that he waited for her to return to the apartment, knowing the girl would be hurt and emotional, and knew exactly what to do and how to treat her once she returned. That same night when everyone was finding places throughout the large lair and its many rooms to crash for the night, S2 happened to see that Sam and Mikey were cuddled up in one of the bedrooms. The sight was nothing sexual, and their embrace seemed much more protective and caring than anything, but to S2 cuddling was cuddling. She wouldn't cuddle anyone other than her boyfriend…and yet the following night, Sam had fallen asleep with Donnie in a DIY hammock (apparently an inside joke between the two from previous events?) Then, the following night, S2 found Sam asleep in Raph's room. While Sam was laying one way in the bed, Raph was lying in a perpendicular direction as his head rested on her thigh, almost like a child. THEN during the previous night (Monday), Sam had fallen asleep in Leo's room, and oddly the positions had changed so that now Sam was lying perpendicular to Leo so that her head lay against his thigh, as if she was now the child.

S2 was baffled. Every time she thought she had figured out who Sam must have been dating (because she had to be dating one of these muscular mutants, right?) she saw something that completely changed her mind.  
She literally began typing notes about what she noticed from her alternate's interactions with each of the turtles in her phone so that she could reflect back on these notes when determining who she must be dating.

Leo: he was very protective of EVERYONE which had been made very clear. However, he liked to push others to reach their full potential as well. Each time Sam sparred with him (which holy crap this girl could fight even without powers like was she a goddess?!) she was always pushed to new limits, yet he was gentle and careful to make sure that he didn't push too far and prevented Sam from hurting herself. S2 also noticed that while Leo kept everyone on their toes and made sure everyone was doing their part in tracking down where their enemies may be lurking, he was constantly being gentle as well. He made sure that everyone was getting the needed amounts of food and sleep so that they wouldn't collapse and would NEVER took 'no' for an answer. However, a more playful gentle side also came out whenever Sam was around. The turtle was nothing but smiles whenever he was cooking breakfast with his youngest brother and Sam, and S2 couldn't get over all the times she saw the oldest brother covering Sam in blankets, or moving the girl's body on the couch so that she wouldn't awake from her naps in pain.

S2 noticed that Sam had this power over Raphael as well. He groaned about pretty much everything and always seemed ticked off, yet he always did what he was told. S2 assumed this was just his personality and that he didn't mean to be a grump, but that he couldn't help it either. He was also quite protective of his family and displayed so in a variety of ways, yet it was his family that always seemed to aggravate him as well. His brothers would approach him every so often but usually were much gentler when deciding whether it was a time to tease him or not. Sam, however, would literally walk up to the dude and slap him on the back and smile as if it was no big deal. Goosebumps would form on S2's body whenever her alternate did this, assuming the turtle would become ferocious since his body language just generally made him look this way, yet he remained calm (to a certain extent) as he 'clapped back' with some sort of joke or physical movement as if he was about to fight the girl. While a stranger would see this as a fight starting to breakout, S2 learned that the whole charade was a game between the two. The game was to assert dominance over the other and it played out in a variety of ways: a playful physical competition, some type of pranking challenge, or a battle of words, but both knew when it was time to call things quits and knew how to keep the peace while challenging each other as well. S2 also noticed that some of the tough turtle's calmest moments were also with the woman who seemed to challenge him the most. One time S2 heard the guys talking to their father through their t-coms and this had made Raphael quite emotional afterwards. From what S2 had made out (hiding as she listened in on the two's conversation) Raph didn't like knowing that their father was back home without anyone to help defend him in case anyone in the Foot found their new home, which apparently was a never ending worry for the family as a whole. While Raph hid these emotions from his brothers, he confided in Sam to talk to. This was when the softer and gentler side of the grumpy turtle were seen, and S2 found this very interesting.

Then there was Donatello. From what S2 could tell, Donnie was similar to Leo in being rather mature and took his work very seriously to the point where he almost never ate or slept unless someone made him (luckily each of his family members made sure to look out for this, even holding conversations with the turtle in front of them about who saw him eat last). That's where Sam came in. Whenever Donnie needed to rest, Sam would take over. It seemed that she was the only one in the group who could handle the same amount of work that he could, and it seemed that the turtle was grateful that he could place such trust in her hands. It was also extremely evident that he appreciated being able to hold such highly intellectual conversations with the girl that he could not hold with any other. These intellectual conversations always then turned into Sam nerding out with the purple bearing turtle so that he was actually laughing his ass off when he was supposed to be working. However, she did so just enough so that he was taking a mini break in the midst of his work since it was such a battle to make him take an actual break and walk away from his corner of monitors. It seemed that the rest of the brothers knew that this was what was happening as well since they never questioned when Sam made Donnie laugh, yet they would scold Mikey if he was the one making Donnie laugh. It seemed that in general Donnie seemed at ease in front of Sam, as if he could let a serious barrier down and calm himself down and relax while still doing what he needed to do. And then when he actually removed himself from his monitors, he became very silly and was almost similar to his youngest brother, and then that was amplified if Sam was anywhere nearby.

And then there was the baby brother Michelangelo. His strong connection to Sam was evident from the beginning, but when looking closely, their connection was much more than just joking around and knowing how to comfort each other. It was clear that Mikey was a goofball, and while he did say many, many…interesting things, he could be quite intelligent when he put his mind towards something. One could sense that his brothers knew about this, but for a variety of reasons they didn't push Mikey too far in regards to challenging his intellect. One of these reasons was that Mikey was lazy and knew that if he played dumb or purposefully said things to be annoying then his brothers would leave him out of work that he didn't want to do from the start (although this rarely succeed anymore since he brothers caught onto this gimmick very quickly when they were growing up, but every once in a while they would give in and leave him be instead of actually making him do whatever work needed to be done). Another reason was that Mikey had denied himself that he was very smart, which resulted in him not applying himself and proving just what he could truly to help contribute to various family needs. When compared to all of his brothers he definitely knew that he wasn't as smart as the others. Unfortunately as a child, Mikey had a harder time focusing on 'homework' that Splinter provided them (wanting his children to experience a type of schooling just like human kids did, and also wanting to prepare his children for ways, rules, and events occurring in the world). Even though the four were actual quadruplets, Mikey's ability to concentrate was similar to a kindergartener who was the youngest in his class compared to the ones who turned 6 within the first month of the school year. Those mere months made a world of a difference in academic ability for young children, and for some reason this same concept played along with Mikey.

Splinter noticed that as Michelangelo grew older that he was better able to read, write, think strategically and abstractly, think mentally and without written notes, handle electronics and machinery, understand and comprehend more complex conversations, and more. His artistic skills were learned completely on his own. Splinter was mesmerized that his son actually TAUGHT the rest of his brothers how to play instruments. Mikey was able to play any and all instruments as well as Donatello could. However, Donnie had to teach himself to play by watching videos and learning to read sheet music, whereas Mikey just naturally taught himself and to this day could not read a single note. However, if he heard a song, he could learn to play it on ANY instrument within a matter of minutes. Splinter also loved Mikey's artistic creations. While each brother had artistic interests, Mikey excelled in all of them. Drawing, painting, sculpting with various materials, architecture, digital art (the only time Mikey was better than Donnie when using technology), baking and cooking (which it was Mikey who was the main reason the family actually ate healthy food and not just pizza), calligraphy and penmanship, poetry and other written works, tapestry (it was Mikey who taught Raph how to knit!), and so much more. Mikey was a genius when creating his artistic designs. His brothers asked for his help since they recognized these talents, and yet Mikey still did not see himself as intelligent. While his brothers had recognized their baby brothers abilities outside of academics, Mikey assumed that he generally just wasn't smart like the others were.

Splinter had also always been intrigued in Michelangelo's fighting skills. Mikey was just as able to fight as his brothers, he just didn't apply himself unless he truly needed to (either because his life was in danger or because he would otherwise be sent to the Hashi). When he truly fought to the best of his ability, Mikey was truly a skilled fighter. Out of the four brothers, Mikey was actually mere steps behind Leonardo in his quick reflexes and ability to act on his toes. Splinter also recognized that Mikey was the strongest in regards to his emotional intelligence: his abilities to share his feelings, in sympathizing and tending to others, in reading how others felt and knowing what they needed in return, and communicating and creating peace with others. Splinter knew this from the moment the turtles could walk and began to communicate in the same way that infants could, and he knew that one day Mikey would change and save lives because of this.

The turtles had always sensed these things as well, but never said much about it, not realizing or truly understanding why Mikey acted the way he did. They had always assumed that since Mikey knew he was the baby brother that he would purposefully be a dork because that was just his childish personality. Plus, him being the youngest, ALL 3 older brothers had always been protective over him, so they also assumed that Mikey knew he had been slightly coddled and so he playfully took advantage of it.

None of the three knew that the real reason for Mikey playing dumb and turning towards comedy and silly antics was because he felt that he truly wasn't anywhere near as intelligent as the others. While Splinter recognized that his son needed a differentiated education, Mikey himself never realized this and instead just assumed that he was nowhere close to where his brothers were in regards to intellect. Unfortunately, Splinter realized this when it was too late, and Mikey had already zoned in and retaliated to his current goofball antics.

There were times where Mikey was just genuinely hilarious and knew how to throw in a perfect punch line at the right time, but there were other times when he tried and failed, or it just wasn't a time for comedy. Sam, however, was the key in getting Mikey to realize these moments of when to and when not to be silly, and also was able to trick Mikey into challenging himself. While the brothers didn't understand why Mikey acted the way he did, Sam apparently picked up on the reasons for his antics very quickly into their friendship. The reason S2 knew any of this information was because Sam had shared how she helped try to get Mikey realize how truly smart he was. She would talk for hours with her alternate about how when she and Mikey first became friends, she would hold such meaningful conversations with him as he helped her study for her AP exams and she practically taught him everything from her notes and textbooks. She was basically the differentiated education that Michelangelo always needed (Splinters words to her).

Sam also made S2 swear on her life that she wouldn't tell anyone, but Sam constantly was checking out various books on various topics for Mikey to read from the library. Mikey had learned 'a shit ton' (Sam's words) after just reading and holding conversations with her afterwards about the parts he didn't understand. He read an equal mix of fiction and nonfiction which only increased his abilities to do things that his brothers could. These books were why Mikey knew how to help out with the vehicles the group owned, how he could help fix furniture throughout the lair, and why he was able to help Leo tend to his Zen gardens. There were many other skills that Mikey learned and information he understood thanks to Sam that none of his brothers had ever bothered to work with him on and help teach him about.  
Mikey had taught himself some basics in speaking a few other common languages spoken throughout the world, he could complete some basic coding by himself (but very basic, more so like video editing), he could probably teach a lecture about historical events and concepts, human biology, psychology, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, communication studies, education, geography, some basics of law, basic of linguistics, basics of political sciences, and many other subcategories that relate to these such as religious, cultural, and gender studies, and demography.

Sam knew that Mikey obviously specialized in understanding people since all these categories to extents studied people and how they functioned in one way or another. And yet, he made Sam swear on her life not to tell anyone (although she saw telling her alternate as still talking to herself, so this didn't count) and swear that he would never tell his brothers about the conversations that they held. It was as if he was afraid of his brothers to know that he was actually quite smart when dealing with his fields of expertise. He was dead center in a bell-curve displaying one's intelligence, and in regards to social sciences, Mikey's intellect was rather high, and yet he refused to let others know this about himself. Sam shared with S2 that she had discussed these concerns with Splinter and they both had come to the conclusion that Mikey hid these truths about himself since he assumed his role was the not-smart comedic relief of the family. Mikey had also learned to hide small concerns (moments of anger and upset or moments of physical pain) behind his humor as well. When seriously pained by something he would confide in others, but minor things were hid behind a wall of smiles and laughter. But Sam recognized all of this very early on, and even S2 could sense this just from observations alone.  
And from observations alone she could tell that Sam did whatever she could to make Mikey realize that he was capable of much more than he realized, but both women could sense that Mikey would never realize this without one of them literally telling him, and they both feared that he would break from confusion of not falling into the family role he assumed was his.  
Leo was the mature and quick thinking strategic leader, Raph was the brave and bold brother with a secret emotional side, Donnie was the hardworking brother who saved the day behind the scenes with his logic, so he played the role of getting everyone to communicate properly, including being a comical dork that would sometimes look like dumb if that's what it took to get everyone else to work together and cooperate. Sam hated that his felt that this was his role, but it never bothered him and he continued to live life with his carefree attitude (the main reason none of this ever bothered him) so she didn't want to risk breaking that down by informing him of how intelligent he truly was. 

There was also the fact that Mikey lost focus incredibly fast. For ten minutes Mikey could go 'ham' and get something he was told to complete efficiently…and after those ten minutes he was bored and needed to do something new, or at least much more interesting to him that he could focus on for hours. Usually his brothers knew how to handle these situations, but when their hands were tied it became difficult for them to entertain their brother. Sam somehow always knew how to handle these situations. She either knew what to have him focus on that would keep him occupied, or she was just eager herself to take a break and hang out with the energetic turtle. Of course, one of the other brothers usually retaliated at the latter choice since Sam was needed to help move the mission along since she was the only one who could work at the same pace as Donnie. And yet, she would find a way to get things to work out where she was still conversing with Mikey even though he may be doing something else. This was also where she challenged the turtle, holding conversations that made him think long and hard before providing a response, all the while Sam was still reading over documents and hacking into security systems so that she could hunt for their enemies. Sam and Mikey displayed quite a unique friendship, they both could make each other laugh within a matter of seconds and enjoyed pretty much everything the other one did, but the most important things that S2 picked up on were how to the two supported each other whenever they were upset about something. Whenever Sam thought of her siblings, Mikey always knew what to do to make her feel better, and whenever the boys were rather harsh towards Mikey, Sam always knew how to cheer him up and make him feel better. It was as if the two always knew how to make the other be the best they could be.

After analyzing everything she observed and had been informed of from her alternate, S2 assumed that without a doubt that Mikey and Sam had something going on. But the same way she read Mikey like a book and secretly helped him unlock his true potential, she did the same for the other brothers. Whenever any of the three needed to calm down or relax, she knew what to do. Whenever the other three needed to vent or rant, she knew just what to say. She knew how to make all four brothers let down their protective barriers that sometimes their own brothers didn't know about, leaving S2 dumbfounded about which one she truly had the strongest, and more than friendship type of relationship with.

Just as S2 thought this, she just dodged a punch aimed at her face from her alternate.  
"Whoa, you really zoned out there. You good?" Sam asked.  
"Uh-huh" S2 said, breathing heavily.  
It was now 12 in the afternoon and Sam was taking a mini break to spar with her alternate.  
While S2 was able to help in some ways, she knew that she was nothing when it came to defending herself. She begged Sam to teach her how to fight and defend herself, and being the dork she was, Sam loved being seen as such a role model and couldn't deny the girl's request.  
She decided to teach some basic moves and techniques in both martial arts and also in self-defense to the girl who had some muscle, but just didn't know how to use them.

S2 was nowhere near as strong as Sam was even when Sam wasn't using her powers, but the girl still danced professionally and did carry some muscle with her. Unfortunately, she just had no idea how to properly use this muscle to keep herself safe.  
Sam was currently teaching her how to properly hold and throw a punch, and then how to follow through so that it would affect the opponent as much as possible, and along with this skill, how to block and dodge punches.  
Luckily she taught both skills simultaneously since she almost nailed her opponent in the face.  
"What stole you from me like that?" Sam asked.  
"The same thing as yesterday" the girl said with a smirk.  
Sam rolled her eyes. She quickly turned around to make sure that no one was within close enough range to hear this conversation.  
This lair was similar to that of the one back home, but this one spread out in all different directions from its round center. Donnie compiled all the major monitors into one main corner, there was a small water way in the middle of the room (although this was more like a peaceful pond since it was much smaller than the flowing water that entered the lair back home).

Right now Sam and her alternate were sparring in the mini workout gym that was located on the left of the room. On the left was where one of the many labs was set up. J2 was currently working there, but he had headphones on since he was someone who needed lyric-less music to help him focus. On the left of that was a garage space where cars could park, but there were also extra workspaces in there (honestly everything was a work space, the group had just shifted some materials around so that the area was comfortable for sleeping and relaxing when the time called for it). To the left of that was where a bunch of screens and monitors were located. There also happened to be a couch here, which was where Jay had happened to doze off during his shift to relax some.  
To the left of that was an entry way to a kitchen which was where Michelangelo was located as he continued to complete his readings on a tablet while simultaneously making himself a snack.  
Then there were the multiple rooms on the floor above. Again, they were all designed as labs and workspaces, but included beds so that the original team of scientists that worked with J2 had a place to sleep when working long hours. Both Leo and Raph were in rooms they deemed their own as they completed their work.

Once Sam had made sure that no one could hear, she turned back towards her alternate.  
"Look sis, I already told you that I'm not dating any of them. They're just friends, practically family."  
"But they're not blood, so anything can happen" S2 said, crossing her arms and looking at her companion delightfully, dipping her head down to tease Sam with the look she displayed.  
"Why do women always assume that men and women can't be just friends and that they must date?" Sam groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose.  
"Oh come on!" S2 said as she threw a punch at Sam, to which she received a nod of approval that she had thrown the punch correctly. "You can't tell me you don't find any of them attractive."  
"Alright unless you're my thong then don't be up my ass and just drop it" Sam said sternly as she threw a punch as the girl, nodding as her counterpart properly blocked and dodged the punch.

"Do you just lack the confidence to say something to him?" S2 asked, throwing another punch, although this time she didn't receive the nod she was waiting for.  
"Wait, what?" Sam asked in confusion.  
"Well you obviously don't know how to dress like a girl" S2 stated bluntly. "All you know how to wear are t-shirts and baggy long sleeve shirts and form fitting pants and lose shorts. And all you wear are Converse, Vans, or Adidas shoes. You need to show off some pearly toes every once in a while girl!" S2 said in such a relaxed way that left Sam baffled.  
Sam placed her hand on her hip as she looked down at her outfit. It perfectly matched the girl's description: she currently wore a gray t-shirt that was actually a hand me down from J2 and was wearing black athletic joggers with black Adidas running shoes. And what was her counterpart wearing? A white crop top Adidas shirt that revealed her tummy (and also allowed a viewer to get a glimpse of the rather revealing sports bra underneath), and the rather skimpy (in Sam's opinion of course) red running shorts the girl was wearing. The only thing Sam liked about her outfit were the white tennis shoes she was wearing.

"Okay, so I didn't realize you were an expert on how I am supposed to live my life. Should I be taking notes?"  
"God I love you but you're so frustrating" S2 said as she rolled her eyes. "I get the whole wanting a guy to love you for you thing, but you need to show off that sexy body of yours a little bit" she said as she gently nudged her elbow into Sam's side. "I mean they stare at you enough that you might as well give them a little something more to look at.  
Sam opened her mouth to talk, and then completely froze. "Come again?"  
S2 paused before a huge smirk appeared on her face. "You must be joking. There's no way you haven't noticed the way they all stare at you."  
"And how exactly do they stare at me?" Sam asked, taking a sip from her water bottle so that she could hide the blush beginning to appear on her face.  
"Don't worry, none of it is predatory. I can tell they're all gentlemen, but they still take glimpses at you every now and then. The glimpses last a little longer whenever you're wearing leggings though, that or when you change your shirt in front of them and only have a sports bra covering your top half. Oh! Or when you're changing pants and are only wearing spandex underneath as your putting on new pants or shorts."  
"Psh" Sam chuckled, "that's probably just them making sure I'm okay. Apparently I have a habit of having clothing blunders" she said, pursing her lips as she remembered that she already flashed herself in a bra to two of the turtles.

"Are either of you going to do anything today?" Raph grunted as he exited from his room on the second floor, carrying a tablet with him.  
Sam peered over her shoulder in the direction where the turtle was walking.  
"We are training, that is considered doing something" she said matter of factly.  
"Looks like you're just running your mouths while the rest of us are busting our asses" he huffed.  
"Look, you have your entire life to be a jerk, why not take some time off?" Sam hissed, a wicked grin forming on her face.  
S2 bit her lip in order to prevent herself from laughing when she looked up and saw Raph display the same devilish grin. And so the battle of words began.  
"You know you would be much more likeable if it wasn't for that hole in your mouth that noise comes out of" he bit back.  
"Hey, if I wanted to listen to an asshole then I would just fart!"  
"Remember that time you shut the fuck up? No? Me neither!"  
"You know what's funny? Not you, so shut up!"  
"You know the only time you sound sexy? When you're not talking!"  
"Keep your dick in your pants and out of your personality!"

"WELL I WAS SLEEPING!" Jay roared as he groggily sat up on the couch.  
Raph and Sam both cringed, guilt washing over them from making the man awake from his needed sleep.  
"My bad" Raph said with an apologetic smile.  
"Is there at least a reason this all began?" Jay groaned.  
"Oh yeah. Where's Donnie?" Raph asked Sam. He then handed her the tablet he had been reading. "I think I found something that Karai might be after."  
Sam quickly skimmed the digital document.  
"Is this a new article? Or research data that's not even published yet?" Sam asked.  
"Ummmm I think new notes that have not published yet. Leo and Mikey were looking through the recently published stuff that's already in the media. I think I got the hacked notes and papers from labs this time" he mentioned as he read the document from over her shoulder.

S2 just stood there in astonishment. One minute they were barking at each other, and now they were working side by side.  
'How does one fight with all their might and make it a joke the entire time?' the girl thought to herself.  
"Hey D! I think we got something!" Sam called out.  
The two walked, S2 trailing behind them, as they headed into the other room where Donnie was sitting in front of multiple different monitors.  
"Ugh give me a sec" he said as he scrambled to pause all the various videos he had playing while he had simultaneously been reading through online articles.  
"Man I don't know how you can focus on so many things at once" Raph groaned, rubbing his head at the thought of having to analyze and comprehend the details from so many different sources.  
"It all depends on what one's prefrontal cortex allows them to think and what their posterior prefrontal cortex allows them to physically do at the same time" he said with a chuckle.  
"Yeah, whatever. Read this" Raph said as he shoved the tablet towards his know it all brother who was currently smirking since he knew his 'complicated' talk always messed with Raph as he tried his best to understand what the heck his brother had just said (something he loved to do as a comeback for the teasing he received from his brothers).

Donnie quickly read over the document and before he could even say anything, Sam and Raph dashed out of the room to retrieve everyone else in the lair. Just the change in Donnie's expression alone informed them that this was an important find and that he would soon be ranting about what exactly the new discovery was.  
A few days prior, April and Casey had been able to sneak into Stockman's old and abandoned lab and when they searched for files on information Stockman would have created about the portal, not a single thing was found. No flash drives, no notepads, no digital files, not even a single post-it note with some scribbles about the project. This informed Donatello that at some point Karai had retrieved any and all notes Stockman had about the portal and brought them back to him so that he could pick up where he left off, meaning that his suspicions that Karai and whoever else had entered this new dimension in hopes of finding a new energy source for the portal pieces back in their home dimension.

Within a minute of Donnie's wandering thoughts, everyone had entered the room.  
"Whatcha find?" Leo asked, striding into the room with confidence, awaiting orders as to what the group would be heading after.  
"Ever heard of Tanzanite?" Donnie asked.  
"It's a pretty blue" Mikey said with a sparkle in his eye.  
"What about it?" Raph grunted.  
"Oh! I've heard about this!" J2 interrupted. "I recently heard at work that scientists were testing different crystals in radiation experiments to see if they could be used as energy sources. But, the scientists were just completing trial runs."  
"Well the trial runs have been completed, and they were successful. Look here" Donnie said as he plugged an altered USB chord that connected the tablet and to his watch. A touch screen then appeared in a large holographic format for everyone in the group to see.  
"According to this section of the document" Donnie said as he highlighted some sentences, "the trial runs were most successful with Tanzanite, a rare type of gemstone. They began using smaller amounts to power smaller devices, but the more they added and the more radioactive the gemstones became, the more powerful they became. So far they've been able to power electric cars using these radioactive gemstones."  
Sam gulped. "You think Karai might go after this? Do you think that if Stockman found out about this at home he could use it to power the portal?"  
Donnie bit his lip. "There's a good chance that Karai and whoever she brought with her will try to steal this here and now so that it's easier for Stockman to get to work. That way they won't have to worry about taking the time to find the materials and test it out back home. Where was this tested?" Donnie asked to no one in particular as he continued to skim the article.  
"There" Leo said as he pointed to a sentence on the holographic screen. "OneLife Science."

"Ever heard of it?" Jay asked his alternate.  
"Yes. The companies building is a decent ways away from here, but traveling underground will get us their sooner. Does anyone know if-"  
"I've been watching the cameras and up until the time we all met up there was nothing stated about break-ins or thefts" Mikey interjected.  
"Nice, bro" Raph said, lightly nudging his baby brothers side.

While Donnie could read a million things at once (and then continue to complete physical tasks at the same time), Mikey could watch and listen. Each day his job had included watching surveillance footage from highly known research facilities and also from police stations throughout the city in order to let everyone else know when there might be a current robbery taking place. That way, the group could drop what they were doing and prepare to hunt down Karai immediately.  
"That means that right now we have the upper hand, but we'll need to move quickly. This document was updated a mere 4 hours ago. That means that if Karai has access to this buildings data, thanks to any tips and tricks Stockman may have taught her, then she'll know about this soon. And that's if she's the only one in her group of however many doing the same research that we've been completing."  
"Gear up guys, we need to move fast. We'll discuss our plan as we head out" Leo ordered. "Mikey, grab the tech Donnie gave you earlier. You'll continue to lookout for any thefts while we're heading over there. Sam, bring as much tech that you can in order to help Donnie with any hacking he may need to do when we get there, that or in case we need to split up into teams. Jay and J2, you guys head to the building above ground. You'll be our eyes on the streets in case you spot either Karai or any other suspicious characters. Raph, help me figure out the quickest way to reach the OneLife Science building from the sewers."

Everyone nodded and did as they were told, following the natural born leaders instructions. Everyone except for S2 that is. She was still standing in front of Leo with an excited smile on her face.  
"What's my job boss?" she asked in anticipation.  
"Hmmmmm" Leo hummed as he pondered on what job to give their newest recruit in their band of misfits. He knew better than to just shut her out (something he knew Raph would bluntly do) since that would just set her off in an angered frenzy, and nobody needed to experience that again. He needed to think of a task to keep her occupied that could still be beneficial to the group. If it was obvious that he was just giving her busy work then he knew she would get pissy and freak out about the task.  
"We'll need you to stay here and continue watching over the monitors and police scanners."  
S2 crossed her arms and frowned.  
"But that means I would have to stay here by myself" she said in a cross tone.  
"Well you didn't think you were going to join us, did you?" J2 asked.  
"But!-"  
"It's for everyone's safety. We need to focus on the mission and we need you to stay safe" Leo reassured. "Plus, if you catch that Karai is heading someplace else, then you telling us so that we can change our course of action would be incredibly helpful. If Karai is heading somewhere else then we'll need to know immediately, meaning that someone would have had to have stayed back either way. You being that person is a huge help for the rest of us."  
The girl still sensed that it was busy work to keep her off the 'battle field,' but the leader in blue did make it sound pretty exciting and as if she would truly be helping he group out, so she caved.  
"Fine" she sighed. "Teach me what to do and how to communicate" she said with a smile.

"Guys! It's on the news!" Mikey shouted as he rushed back into the room. "Look!"  
Mikey turned to one of Donnie monitors and pulled up an online video of a familiar woman but now with red hair and glasses who was informing a reporter of what her team had recently completed in the past few weeks.  
"April?" Leo questioned.  
"Oh, you know her?" S2 asked. "Man you guys are lucky. She's one of the greatest scientists in our dimension. Wish I could meet her."  
"Scientist?" Raph asked. "She's supposed to be a reporter."  
"Really? Guess there's more dimensional changes that exist than we thought" S2 chuckled.  
"We need our April. Now!" Leo demanded.  
Donnie nodded and pulled out his t-com.  
"Guys April?" he asked in rush.  
"_I'm here._" She replied instantly.  
"Oh, April! That was fast."  
"_You didn't think I was going to go about my daily life as if you guys weren't away in a different dimension now did you?_" she teased through the communication line.  
"April!" Leo called out. "We need you here. Think you can handle some undercover work for us?" he asked.  
"_Oh your timing couldn't be any more perfect. Vincent just left. I'll be there in a minute!"_

__And just like the woman said, she arrived exactly in a minute's time through a portal that dropped her from the ceiling (luckily being caught by Leo himself).  
As he carefully placed her down, she looked up at him and with a confident smile said "catch me up and tell me what I need to do."

**Yay! Character Development! Backstory! References to the comics and the 203 series! WOOHOO!  
Hope you're all having as much fun as I am :D**

**Also 'guest' on Fanfiction, thank you for your kind words :3 I'm thrilled that my story plays out like a movie for you and I hope I can continue to live up to your expectations! :D  
Especially since the next chapter is going to be filled with action hehe. **


	4. Chapter 58

**Any references to TMNT or anything from popular media and culture is NOT MINE. I only own my OC's. Any references to "TMNT Out of the Shadows" DO NOT BELONG TO ME. Only my additions that I came up with myself belong to me. Anything from the films or other series ARE NOT MINE, only my OC's and my ideas that I have added onto the story FOR FUN. ****  
****Thank you. **

Chapter #58

***Still Tuesday May 24****th****, 2016. About 12 in the afternoon***

After quick introductions were made (and S2 finally calmed down after being told a dozen times that this April wasn't the scientist that was just seen on the television) the group began formulating a new plan.  
April should have had the same finger prints as the April (what they were going to call A2, following their favored naming trend). This meant any information locked away through fingerprints, eye scans, etc. should work for their April as well. This meant that if the group moved fast enough then they could use their April to sneak in and retrieve any and all evidence of the radiated Tanzanite and hide it so that Karai couldn't get her hands on it.

The main issue at this current time was that in order to make a key card (another tool April might need when entering and maneuvering her way throughout the building) was that the photo portion of the I.D. needed to look like the red headed A2.  
Of course, S2 had wigs and all sorts of makeover materials back at her place, so she hurried along with April as she brought the woman to her apartment for a makeover. She would then snap a picture of April to Donnie who would quickly generate a fake I.D.  
The group would travel underground and hand the I.D. over to April as she entered the building to retrieve the Tanzanite. The Jay's and Sam would be tailing behind her as they snuck around and blended in with their surroundings, looking out for anyone who might interfere with April's part of the mission.

While S2 had taken April topside, Donnie discovered through some stolen electronic documents from the scientists working for OneLife Science that since their results were successful, multiple groups were going to split up the work and continue testing the Tanzanite in multiple locations. However, nothing said where these locations were just yet, but the documents did state when the materials were going to be shipped to their new locations outside the OneLife building aka the main and original facility.

Sam had offered to go topside and set up trackers (made by the one and only Donatello) that would carefully be placed onto the trucks carrying the radiated gemstones so that the group would know what buildings to follow afterwards.  
The guys agreed to this plan. Leo and Raph traveled underground, following the exact steps Sam was walking up on the surface above. Mikey and Donnie followed along as well, but Mikey continued to listen in to the police scanners, and Donnie continued to use his tablets to hack into the company's database as a means to gather any additional information he could. Simultaneously, he was setting up the tracking system he had installed among the many other programs that could be accessed through the device he wore on his wrist.

Sam currently hid right behind a dumpster, purposefully moving it and placing it so that she could hide behind it. She had seen enough movies to know better than to hide in the dumpster unless it was a life or death decision, so she maneuvered the large object to benefit her instead of choosing to dive into it. About 15 minutes later, the trucks arrived at the time that Donnie had stated according to the online documents he accessed.

It was now currently 1p.m. Sam used a pea shooter to shoot tiny electronic trackers that were so small that they looked like flies that were darting towards the truck. 3 trackers were aimed at the 3 trucks that arrived. Another 10 minutes went by before the trucks finally loaded everything they needed and drove away.

"This is sergeant awesome stating that the mission has been accomplished" Sam said as she brought her wrist up to her mouth. She spoke into yet again a wonderfully tactical device that Donnie had created. It started as a Fit Bit that had been crushed by a bike that only Donnie would want to pick up and save. For all the teasing he got by Raph, moments like this made Donnie happy that he was the technological hoarder that he was, since the 'used to be Fit Bit' was now a basic communication device.  
"Good job Sam" Leo said into the walkie talkie attached to the strap across his chest. "We're located by a manhole cover in an ally way two streets down from where you are. Head that way when the coast is clear."  
"And then the waiting game begins. Someone please take a picture of Raph's face when he hears that" Sam snickered, knowing that right now the turtle was pacing back and forth, low-key jealous that Sam was the one doing the 'hard work' as she snuck around up on the surface.  
"Just hurry up and get down here already" Raph growled into his walkie talkie.  
"How many times have you paced back and forth now?" she chuckled.  
"22. Now 23" Mikey stated, before a thump like sound was heard through the speaker.  
"What a temper. Much wow" Sam teased, mocking her rough friend for his childish reaction to being teased.  
"Tease Raph after you've returned underground" Donnie stated. "The last thing we need is for you to be spotted by Karai and allow her to see what you're doing and then let her figure out what we know. If we're lucky then she doesn't know anything about the materials being sent to different places yet."

There was no reply after that.  
"You made her mad" Mikey stated.  
"Who did?" Raph asked.  
"I guess you."  
"What?!"  
"Well you responded first. The first to talk is always the one who did something wrong, that's why you spoke out of guilt" Mikey said with a cheeky grin.  
"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't know the 'you smelt it you dealt it' rules applied here" Raph grunted, shoving his brother in the process.  
"Both of you keep quiet" Leo hushed, waving at them to keep down.  
He then turned around to Donnie who had suddenly began typing away at his tablet.  
"What's up?" Leo asked.  
"Sam isn't responding and she turned her device off. It was fully charged which means the battery couldn't have died."  
Raph and Mikey had stopped horsing around at that point and walked closer to where their brother currently sat criss cross on the ground with his device in his lap.  
"Sam?" Donnie tried again as he talked into the walkie on his shoulder, wondering if he had fixed the problem. He then immediately got his t-com out as a means to contact the other humans in the group.  
"Does anyone have eyes on Sam? Is she with anyone? Do we have footage of her?"  
"Oh shit" the Jays oddly said in unison.  
"What?" Mikey responded, without as much as a second to take a breath after the alternates spoke.  
"Donnie I want you to hack into a camera on Douglas road, a side street. There's a small bakery with a security camera in the front. There's something you need to see."

Within 2 minutes Donatello had done as he was told, and the brothers all gasped at what they saw.

***A few minutes prior, Sam's perspective***

The timing was as ironic as it got. Just as Donnie was talking about making sure that Karai didn't learn about what they were doing, a young couple who had been teasing each other had playfully pushed the female in the relationship, causing her to bump into Sam as she was standing back up after tying her shoe.  
"Oh I'm sorry!" the woman said as she turned toward Sam. Sam had never seen someone's expression instantly switch from one of playful joy to one of sheer terror and shock.  
Karai had just bumped into her, and she recognized who she had bumped into without a second glance.  
Of course, Tatsu was the male in the relationship and was standing right next to his partner in crime.  
Sam knew she had to play it cool and brush it off. She needed to trick and convince Karai that she was an alternate of the Sam that the woman knew.  
"Psh, honey I wish I had a man who joked with me like that. Don't apologize for being in love" Sam said in an animated tone.  
At first the couple stood there, probably contemplating how to react to this situation themselves. Finally, Karai's eyes widened which signaled to Sam that Karai was falling into her trap.

"Why aren't you sweet" she replied. "but I really am sorry for bumping into you" she added. "Where are you headed?" Karai asked.  
'Nice try, I'm not revealing where the gemstones are you idiot' Sam thought to herself.  
"I was actually heading into that cute café over there" she said as she pointed to a café that was in the direction she was walking in. It was a small café that seemed like a chain business since there were such huge lines of people standing inside the facility.  
"All my friends say it's perfect since there are drinks you can buy that aren't too sugary. I love sweets, but it's hard to eat sugary things when I'm trying to become a professional ballet dancer, you know" Sam stated. Her goal was to make herself sound like a totally different Sam than the one that Karai was used to.  
"So how long have you two been together?" Sam asked, swinging her body side to side like a bashful child.  
"Honestly I don't even know anymore" Karai chuckled, "it's been so many years now that I've lost track."  
"Gee thanks" Tatsu said, wrapping an arm around the woman and pulling her in close.  
Sam could easily tell that they were pulling an act of their own. Everyone in the Foot clan knew these two were an item, but they NEVER acted like this.

"Well we better get going now" Karai stated, "we have some errands we need to take care of. Nice talking to you" she said with a (fake) heartfelt smile.  
"And I need to get in that line before it gets any longer" Sam replied with a giggle. "Take care now" she said before checking both ways and then crossing the street.  
She stood in line long enough until she could tell the two had walked away. It took her awhile to determine this since she had been using reflections from various windows to see where the two were located, but when she finally knew for sure that they had ventured off, she left the line and snuck into the back where only the employees were supposed to enter.  
She snuck through until she found a door that lead to the ally out back.

Once outside, she ran over to the nearest manhole cover and left downwards.  
She was down at the far end of the sewer tunnel, but she was now in the same tunnel as the turtles.  
"What happened?" Mikey asked as soon as the girl's feet touched the ground of the tunnel.  
"Shit luck is what happened" Raph grumbled.  
"What did they say?" Leo asked.  
Sam had now jogged down and was standing amongst her mutant family.  
"They did the same thing I did. They pretended they had never seen me before and acted like the opposites of themselves. They didn't let on, but I know they knew who I was. The fact that I was right down the street from the OneLife building, they had to have put 2 and 2 together."  
"That and they watched you for 8 minutes while you stood in line at a coffee shop" Donnie chimed in. "Good job at using your surroundings by the way" he said as he fist bumped the girl.  
"Thanks, but we need to change our plan, and fast."  
"Why?" Raph grunted. "Karai doesn't know about the Tanzanite being taken away, right? Wouldn't changing the plan just let her know that something is up?"  
"Yes and no. Karai and Tatsu are now probably somewhere still relatively close by to where they bumped into me. I'm sure they're waiting to see me exit the building so they can watch and see where I go next. They're probably planning to ambush or follow me since either would normally allow someone to find the answers they were looking for. If I can get them to follow me and then have them running in circles in the wrong building, then you guys can track the trucks and be somewhere completely different without them even knowing."  
"And what if they split up?" Raph asked.  
"Then I fight off one of them, and the four of you fight off the other. Plus you'll still have April and the Jay duo to help you out in regards to entering the buildings."

Leo nodded. "You make good points. Alright, we'll-"  
"Nope!" Mikey announced.  
"What do you mean no?" Sam asked with narrow eyes.  
"This chick is at it again" Mikey stated with a clenched jaw. He turned a small tablet around for the group to see as they watched a live news feed about the project being separated into the four buildings.  
"Dammit!" Raph bellowed.  
"I never thought I could be so mad at April man, but this chick is really getting on my nerves" Mikey groaned.  
"So new-new plan!" Sam announced as she clapped her hands together.  
"Hold on" Donnie stated. He held a finger up to make her pause, and then lightly shook that finger as thoughts ran through his head. "We can still use your plan, but we have to be careful."  
"Elaborate" Leo demanded with curiosity.  
"Sam can still lead Karai into one of the buildings as a decoy. This news report didn't state how much of the Tanzanite will be sent to each one. That means that if we can determine which building has smaller projects and lower amounts of Tanzanite then Sam can lead Karai there."  
"And if I'm just blindly running around the building with Karai on my tail, then you guys can actually focus on getting the Tanzanite and getting out."  
"Could Jay do the same thing?" Mikey asked. "Since Tatsu would recognize him. He could distract him as well."  
The brothers looked shocked with wide eyes as they processed that Mikey just came up with a good idea to add to the plan. Sam, however, was giving the turtle two thumbs up for speaking his mind.

"Alright, contact the Jay's and inform them that our Jay is going to lead Tatsu into one of the buildings as a decoy. The rest of us will split up. Raph and I will tail Sam since Karai is already so close by. Donnie, you'll aide April and Mikey will go with Jay. That way everyone has at least one other person they can rely on. Each team consists of a human who can fight and blend in with their workplace surroundings while also having a ninja who has their back."

"Tell April and Jay to head for a fire alarm once they get to a higher level of the building" Sam cut in. "That will help clear out the building so that it's easier for us to move from room to room, and that goes for all of us having easier access of the rooms."  
"That will help us lose track of Karai and Tatsu as well" Mikey cut in.  
"Why?" Sam asked with a smirk, hoping once again that her friend would impress his brothers.  
"Well if you guys get to a higher floor quick enough, then the crowds of people exiting the building will distract and prevent our enemies from finding us."  
Donnie nudged his brother with a smile.  
"Nice thinking. I'll contact April and arrange a meeting point nearby one of the buildings."  
"I'll call Jay as well" Mikey added.  
"We ready for this?" Sam asked as she faced the two oldest brothers.  
"Tch, you have to ask?" Raph groaned as he rolled his eyes and gently pushed past her.  
Sam faced Leo and quickly clapped her hands.  
"That means yes!" she whispered in excitement as she turned around to run after her gruff friend, a perky pep in her step in excitement of all that was about to unfold.  
Leo sighed. "Man you get way to excited to put yourself in danger."

The group finalized their plans. Mikey had contacted Jay and would meet with him at a building further down the street, and Donnie would continue to wait in a spot technically around the corner from where they were located.  
To their amusement, and slight annoyance, the trucks had been loaded with other materials related to other projects as well as the Tanzanite, so the gemstones were actually very close by. Donnie assumed that someone either messed up that shipping order, or that maybe the drivers didn't realize their mistake until later into their job of transporting the materials.

Sam waited for Donnie and Mikey to communicate that they were with their human partners before setting off. Once Jay met up with her at the original location in the sewers behind the coffee shop, they were ready to go.  
"Alright. So you're going to head into one building, and I'm going to head down the street towards the other. That way Karai and Tatsu are completely separated, right?" Jay reassured.  
"Exactly. We want to get those two as far apart from each other as possible. That way every situation is either 2 or 3 against 1. The turtles will fight while we search for the Tanzanite."  
"Okay we've said the plan about a million times now. Can we go?" Raph ushered.  
"So impatient. Hope your future girlfriend likes things quick" she said with a smirk.  
"Make a sex joke one more time, I fucking dare you" he grumbled, standing so that their faces were mere inches apart.  
"Hopefully she also likes an aggressive dominate" she teased, patting his cheek.  
"Jesus" Leo said, pushing past Sam to push Raph further back.  
"Let's go!" Jay groaned, pulling Sam in the opposite direction.  
"She started it" Raph mumbled.  
"He's not wrong!" Sam called over her shoulder.  
"Goodbye Samantha" Leo said through a gritted teeth smile, knowing that hearing her full first name would irk her.  
"Awww you're next when I get back!" she called out.

Once Jay finally got his sister to focus, Sam slowly made her way above ground with him right behind her.

Jay was now wearing a wristband just like the one Sam had on (April had been given one before she left) and spoke into it as he pretended to scratch his nose.

"Mikey can you hear me?" He asked softly.

"Loud and clear bro."

"Let's go" Sam stated as she lead the way.

The two walked out of the alleyway that was next to the coffee shop and turned to their right so that they were now heading down towards the main OneLife science building.

"We have company" Jay whispered.

"Both of them?" Sam asked, assuming that Karai and Tatsu had been watching from somewhere nearby.

"Yup."

"Alright. I'll walk around inside this department store. You keep heading towards the furthest building." Sam then brought her wrist up towards her ear as if scratching it.

"What's your location April?"

"I'm a few streets back. I see Karai and Tatsu."

"As soon as you see them follow Jay and I, you head down towards the building nearby mine."

"Understood."

Sam turned to her left and entered the clothing store. She went straight towards an escalator that would make herself very visible to Karai who quickly took the bait. She walked towards a window in the front of the top level of the store and watched as Tatsu took his bait and continued to follow Jay. Sam then walked further inwards towards the middle of the store.

She then pretended to take a selfie and as she pretended to edit it, she actually sent a message to Donnie informing him to send her a message once he was with April in the back alley by their building.

10 minutes later she received the text. She waited an additional 10 minutes before deciding to leave the store.

Right on cue, Karai made her way to the escalator and was on her way down and out of the store as well.

Now was the time to truly put the plan into action. Sam took a deep breath before she turned to walk down the side walk towards the building. While April had her clearance card, Sam and Jay had located back entrances that they could sneak into.

"How are the cameras Donnie?" Sam asked, scratching her chin.

"Cameras in all 3 buildings have been altered to 2 hour previous. You're good to go as long as no one is out back" he clarified.

"Just what I wanted to hear."

Sam turned at the corner, taking a bit of a longer route to get to the back of the building. Obviously walking straight up to the building and then heading towards the back would be sketchy as hell. Instead, Sam made a few turns so that she would duck from under a few railings and through an alley way to get to the building.

It felt odd though. Karai had been following her the entire time, which meant the plan was going just the way they wanted.

Of course she wanted the plan to play out the way they had planned, but it just felt...odd. Where were the other soldiers for an ambush? Where was Karai's sneak attack? Unless Karai planned on using Sam to lead her to the gemstones first and then she would launch a surprise attack on her. Sam nodded to herself. That idea made more sense. Obviously she wouldn't attack now when she didn't even know where exactly the gemstones were located. Why make the job harder on herself?

Sam crept up to the door and realized the locks had all already been disarmed.

She huffed. 'Show off' she thought to herself, knowing that Donnie had to be an overachiever and think of quick decisions all on his own.

The plan was for her to rush towards the nearest stair case, and once Karai was so far up, set off and alarm so that large crowds of people would be heading downstairs, preventing her from following Sam any further and preventing her from learning where the gemstones were being kept.

Thanks to Donnie's quick thinking, Sam now could rush into the building without any hesitation. She sprinted down the hallways as soon as the door opened up.

"Guys enter and hide once she's in" Sam huffed towards her wrist as she ran. She rounded a corner and thank god the door opened to a stairwell that lead to the roof of the building.

She used her wind powers to send her soaring up towards a higher floor near the top of the stairwell. She stood and waited to see Karai enter that stairwell as well which would guide Sam to quickly pull a fire alarm...but Karai's face was never seen.

"Guys? Did Karai enter the building?" Sam asked into her wrists communication device.

"She's in there. You don't see her?" Leo responded.

"She didn't follow me into the stairwell."

Had running so quickly into the building changed Karai's game plan? What was she thinking now? Sam knew it had been too easy to lure her in up to this point.

Just then the fire alarm went off.

"Shit" Sam mumbled.

"Sam, tell us that was you" Raph whispered worriedly through the connection.

"Unfortunately not. Where are you guys?"

"Down here."

Sam looked down and saw the two turtles waving.

"Hide under-"

"We know" Leo cut in. The two turtles hid under a gap underneath the stairwell.

"J2, where do I need to go? I need to get there quicker than planned."

J2 had stayed back at the lair and was using his technological skills to guide the groups in each building as he accessed digital blueprints of each buildings layout and private documents about what was being studied and held within each room of each building.

Sam hated blindly entering a building like this, but they just didn't have the time to properly plan like they usually would ahead of time. They needed to act and they had needed to do so fast, so she would have to put up with not being as prepared as she would have liked to have been.

"Alright Sam" J2 began, "you are currently on the 40th floor of a 50 floor building. The materials are located in a lab on the 20th floor. And, ohhh…" his voice trailed off.  
"What's wrong?" Sam asked. At this time she began walking downstairs since there were large crowds of people leaving from that and from above floors by using the stairs where she was currently standing and talking to her brother's alternate.  
"I'm checking various security cameras from all 3 buildings and I just spotted Karai. She's on the bottom floor. That means you both have an equal chance of reaching that floor first before the other does."  
"Yeah, but she doesn't know what floor to head towards, right?" Sam asked into her wrist. She was currently and mentally thanking the lord that multiple other people were talking with ear pieces in and with fancy watches and even devices that were located in pockets or on glasses. Because of all the fancy technological gadgets, talking into her wrist didn't seem odd to anyone.  
"You never know, she may have more tricks up her sleeve that we aren't expecting. Just get there as quickly as you can. I'll alert Raph and Leo. I know they're hiding right now so I'll do so cautiously."  
"You're the best my dude" Sam said before placing her arm back at her side. Well, sort of. Her arms were sort of shimmying in all different directions since she was trying to maneuver herself throughout the crowd. However, she didn't want people to go crazy if they saw her reacting frantically. She needed to stay calm as well in order to keep everyone else calm, so she carefully but still as quickly as she could, moved around the group as she made her way down the stairs. She tried to stay as close to the wall as possible when traveling down the staircase since she knew she would need to eventually open the door that would provide her access to the 20th floor.

It felt like an eternity since she had to move so slow due to the numerous amounts of people, but she finally reached the doorway to the 20th floor. There were grumbles and scowls from people as she barely was able to open the door, but she squeezed her way through and was now standing in the very silent hallway of the designated floor. Everyone must have already made their way down the stairs since the hallway was dead silent. Once the door had closed behind her the noise from the hustle and bustle in the staircase had been muted, for the most part at least.

As Sam crept through the hallways, her left hand carefully placed low and towards her back in case she needed to rapidly reach for a weapon, the only sounds she heard were the hums of machines scattered throughout the different lab rooms. She was afraid to communicate through either her walkie or her wrist device since she feared that even the slightest sound that came from her would alert someone, specifically Karai if she had made her way up here and was now lurking or hiding, waiting for Sam to reveal her location.

Sam clung to the wall, her back as close to it as she could get but without being noisy when doing so, as she peeked around the corner. She waited for a few seconds before continuing her journey down the hallway, poking her head into each room as she looked for anything that resembled the blue Tanzanite gemstones.

As she continued her search she began to wonder about the turtles. How were Mikey and Jay doing? They had to travel to the furthest building and supposedly had Tatsu on their tails. Had he caught up to them yet? And what about Donnie and April? How were those two holding up? If things were going according to plan then they should have had the easiest job…which now made Sam stop and question why Mikey hadn't gone with April?...THE LOCKS! Sam said, literally nodding to herself as she stood in the middle of the hallway. Jay could pick locks on her own, whereas April…had a key card…so that wasn't it. Oh! But she also had the least fighting experience, so if something went askew then she would have Donnie there to back her up.

Sam then went to take a few steps, and then paused again. But...Mikey could still defend April as well. He may flirt a bit, but...why had they paired them up the way they did?

Wait, why was she trying to find a reason why Mikey didn't get the easier job? Mikey was a badass and while he would never admit it, he was a highly qualified fighter! So why was she standing here trying to figure out why she hadn't mentioned him in getting the easier job? It wasn't like Mikey couldn't handle a tougher position with handling Tatsu on his own while Jay found the gemstones. But, did she not want Mikey to have the harder job because it was Mikey?

That didn't make any sense! Why would she purposefully want one of her brothers to have an easier job than the others?

Sam snapped her fingers as she thought to herself and realized that it was because he was her best friend. Obviously Mikey could hold his own, but Sam was thinking with a best friend mindset in not wanting anything to happen to him even though she knew all her brothers were bad-asses and could handle anything!

As she rolled her eyes at her silly thoughts she then realized she wasn't creeping down the halls anymore and quickly got back into her stance as she continued to think to herself. She then wondered why it had suddenly gotten so hot in the room. As she passed by an office with a very fragile looking glass door, she could see her reflection in the glare on the door that her cheeks were now very red. She assumed that was because it was so hot in here, what else would explain he sudden flushed cheeks?

Just then she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. She discreetly removed her phone and read a message that had been sent from J2. The message read:  
_KARAI HEADING YOUR WAY! Most of the people out of the building, she had made her way to the 5__th__ floor by the time she pulled the alarm. She has a scientist held at gunpoint who I assume is leading her to the Tanzanite. I messaged Leo and Raph and they're now running up the stairs towards you! Also I just got word from…_

As Sam was reading the message, she heard the click of a door opening. She ducked into the closest room with an open door and hid behind a lab desk. She peeked out carefully, making it so that you could only see her around the desk if you really stood there and focused on it.

"It's just around the corner, I promise!" a frantic voice exclaimed.  
"Shut up! Just lead me to the gemstones" replied a tough female voice.  
Karai. She had already arrived with her hostage. Sam prayed that they would walk by the room so that she could attack her with the element of surprise. This would be even more perfect since the turtles would be showing up soon, meaning that whoever continued to fight Karai would then keep her busy while another member from their group went off and fetched the gemstones.

Sam guessed that it must have been her lucky day since Karai then walked by with the man…only he turned to then enter the room that she was in, so maybe not so lucky after all.  
Sam ducked under the opening for people's legs under the desk, hoping with all her soul that they wouldn't need to access anything near the desk.  
"Sooooo" the frantic older male voice began, "are you also behind the other two buildings being evacuated?"  
"What are you talking about?" Karai asked abusively.  
"You know, people were talking about how our other two buildings are also being evacuated. Apparently fire alarms were pulled at all 3 buildings. Is that because of you?"  
"If I were you then I would focus on leading me to the gemstones" she bit back.  
"Yes ma'am. Of course. We need to go through this room."  
'Shit, I'm missing his instructions' Sam thought. She very slowly slid her phone out of her pocket and began to text J2, ignoring her message from before.

_Did you see what room I just jumped into? After you inform Leo and Raph where I am then make sure to record everything that scientist is telling Karai._

Sam sent the message and then froze at what she heard next.  
"Did you get them yet?"  
Sam's palms became very sweaty since something wasn't right.  
That was Tatsu's voice. Why was he here? He was supposed to be following Jay, so when did he stop? Why hadn't J2 said anything? Sam knew that he wasn't trained to spot things in a crowd like the rest of them, so maybe Tatsu had slipped past his view as he studied and scanned the layouts of 3 different buildings.  
Unless…had something happened to Jay and Mikey? No, no way! There's no way Tatsu could take them both down. Sam could feel her phone vibrating, meaning that someone was sending her messages, but she knew it was too risky to respond when both villains were right there communicating. The messages would have to wait.

"I got them right here. You know our randevu point, right?" Karai asked.  
"Yes. I'm sure the turtles will be coming for us soon. Leave the scientist and head for the randevu spot. I'll be there once I take them down with our secret weapon" Tatsu replied with a smirk.  
She heard footsteps running and then heard a door open and slam shut. Sam didn't know the layout of the building, so even though the door sounded like it had come from further down the hallway, she wasn't quite sure if it was really a door that led to the stairs or not. However, if it was, then the guys really would be fighting against Tatsu right now. This meant that as she heard Karai leave then she needed to follow behind her.

Sam quickly sent a message on her phone to Leo's and Raph's stating that she would trail Karai towards her randevu point while they fought Tatsu. As soon as Sam hit the send button she rolled out from under the desk. She ignored the scientist still in the room and sprinted with the quickest footsteps she could muster. She heard a door close and by the time she rounded the corner she realized that this led to the stairs.  
Sam peeked through the window in the door to make sure that no one was hiding right outside the door.  
Once the coast was clear, Sam opened the door without making even a creak. She looked up as she heard another door that sounded as if it was closing and saw that the door all the way at the top of the stairs had just closed itself shut.

Sam assumed that this meant that Karai had been heading up towards the roof. Sam wanted to check her phone to see if the guys had replied since she now realized that they weren't fighting Tatsu in the stairwell. However, Karai could be escaping with the gemstones now, and depending on how many she needed, she may have had enough for whatever she was planning with Stockman back in their dimension. This meant that Sam didn't have time to check her phone and instead needed to catch up to Karai immediately.

She leapt over the railing and used her powers to shoot herself up to the top stairwell like a rocket, just like she had done earlier.

Once she gingerly landed at the top of the stairs, she once again peeked through the window that looked out onto the rooftop. She saw no one, which was obviously very suspicious. She just heard and even saw that this door had shut which meant that someone had just left through this exit. Were they hiding behind the small boxed off area on the room where this exit way was located?  
Sam removed her tonfa from the two pockets along the sides of her backpack. She then sent another quick message to Leo and Raph informing them that she was about to walk onto the rooftop and to meet her there as soon as they could since she would be fighting Karai.  
She took a deep breath and slowly opened the door.

She took a few steps forward, waiting for someone to either come running up to her, or for someone to throw something at her from afar. Her eyes were blue and black so that she could further prepare herself using her powers for anything that her enemy might throw her way.

Just as expected, smoke bombs were thrown and within seconds Sam was surrounded by smoke.  
"Shit" she mumbled as she pulled her shirt up to cover her mouth and nose. She hadn't put her mask on in the hurry to go into battle, a careless mistake that was no one's but her own. She hoped this smoke was just a distraction and was not poisonous since she knew there was a good chance she may inhale some of it.  
Already on alert, Sam sensed a body racing towards her as she twisted her tonfa to block a sword that was aimed towards her head. Both bodies leapt backwards as a light breeze began to blow the smoke away.  
Just as Karai began to charge towards Sam, more smoke bombs were thrown from behind the space where the door was located.  
It was assumed the plan was to have Karai charge Sam head on while Tatsu threw smoke bombs as a distraction from afar.

Sam knew she could handle this, she knew she was trained for this. From self-defense programs, from the Foot, and most importantly from the turtles. She had been trained on how to handle these situations.  
She closed her eyes and listened to every movement that Karai had made.  
She heard another cut being made towards her waist, but it wasn't quick enough, and Sam spun her tonfa to knock the blade away.  
She then heard the slicing of more than one blade and assumed that two people were now fighting her based on the angles they were coming from.

Sam was getting frustrated that the smoke bombs just kept being set off. She assumed Tatsu and Karai were throwing them as they fought her since two swords were being used as the two enemies swords were constantly being swung at her.  
Sam's eyes went black as she used her wind powers to scatter the wind away within mere seconds. As soon as she did so she brought her tonfa close to her face, preparing herself for what was to come as soon as the smoke cleared.

Sam was ready for anything. Weapons, distraction tactics, anything a fighter might use she was prepared for.  
At least, that's what she thought as she stood there and watched Karai and an unexpected face that had been fighting her.

Sam stood there in shock, and that fast a tranq dart had been launched at her and landed on her arm.  
A rush of emotions flooded through her. Disappointment for allowing herself to get distracted, pain from the face she was seeing, and fear from what would happen next.

"Chuck?" Sam asked as she now stared at her younger brother. He held a katana blade in his hands, standing as if he knew how to hold them.  
Sam shook her head. "He's not real" she said as her eyes grew wide.  
She knew it was bad to reveal her emotions, but seeing him like this shook her to her core. The distasteful look on his face as if they were enemies, the way he was holding his sword as if this was his weapon of choice.  
This wasn't Chuck, especially since this looked like Chuck from years ago before he died, meaning this couldn't be real. Yet Sam fell for the trap and took the bait, and now she had no clue what would happen to her now that she had been shot with a tranq dart.

"It's not" she heard Karai say as she stood off to the side, "but this is."  
Sam then sensed a presence behind her, and just as she spun around to face the intruder, she once again paused as she took the bait.  
She was now facing her adopted brother Brian who was glaring at her as if she was the scum of the earth.  
She shook her head, pained by the thought of having to fight her brother, but her movements were unintentionally slow when she went to block his punch that landed right at her nose.  
Sam stumbled back and realized that her reflexes were failing due to the tranq dart.  
A normal person would probably have fainted at this point, but the weird sensation in her body told her that the mutagen in her veins was fighting as hard as it could to keep her awake.

She tuned just in time to block a punch once again aimed at her face from Brian, but then couldn't react in time to block one from her younger brother.  
That fast the fight had switched from fighting Karai to fighting her dead siblings, and thanks to the tranq dart, she was more so struggling to defend herself and block attacks than actually fight.  
Punches and kicks were aimed her way, one after another.  
Sam wanted to ask questions, but the tears forming in her eyes and barely being able to breath from defending and also feeling groggy made it so that she didn't even have a voice.

Out of the corner of her eye, Sam saw someone run up and enter the space on the rooftop, and that fast it was now Karai who was throwing a punch at Sam. Karai then spun and kicked Sam so then it sent her flying towards the edge of the roof.  
Sam was lucky enough to grab onto a railing placed along the side of the building, but she knew she didn't have the strength to hang on long.  
Even if it was a sign of weakness, Sam tried to scream so that one of the turtles could hear her, but still nothing came out.  
Her body had grown so weak and fatigued that she couldn't make a single sound. The only bit of energy she had within her was to hold onto this beam with all of her strength and might.

"Ahhhh I've waited for this for so long. SO LONG!" Karai cheered.  
Sam now saw that it was Tatsu who was standing on top of the boxed doorway.  
"You…bitch…" Sam was able to mumble.  
"Hmmmm? What's that?" Karai provoked, knowing that even these mumbles were draining the little bit of energy the girl had left.  
"This was your plan all along" Sam almost whispered. "You wanted to get me away from everyone, didn't you? Separating was what you wanted. Then you targeted me using them, and now you're going to have the turtles watch me as you-"  
Sam blacked out for a split second and lost her grip, but quickly grabbed onto the next rung on the railing before plummeting down to the ground.  
"Honey, I would keep quiet if I were you. We don't want you to fall too soon." She said with a devilish smirk.  
"You're not wrong though" Karai continued. "Yes we want the gemstones, but you were also our objective. See, we made a deal with Kraang that we would do whatever it took to get Shredder back, and that includes some small dirty work that includes you. So we followed you, and Tatsu returned to this building so that we could gang up on you. We assumed you knew as much about this building as we did and tricked you into coming up here alone since you didn't realize we both made our way up to the roof. That way, I could test out my new toys to make you fight your dead siblings while the turtles are nowhere to be seen. Ha! Your dumbass fell for everything way too easily" Karai laughed with a cackle.

"You know, it took a while to decide whether to use them, or to use these guys" she said as she then tuned as with the press of a button, Sam's brothers turned into Raph and Leo.  
"But I thought it would be more fun to use these two, so that was my final pick" she said as she switched the turtles back into Chuck and Brian.  
"How?" Sam mumbled.  
Karai smirked as she leaned over and looked down at Sam, who was still dangling and just barely holding onto the railing.  
"Don't worry-"  
"NO!"  
"Everything will be explained-"  
"DON'T DO IT!"  
"Once you wake up."

Karai then kicked Sam in the face, instantly making her black out.  
That meant that she didn't realize Leo and Raph had made their way to the roof and were now rushing over to the railing, forgetting everything and everyone else around them as they panicked and shouted as they looked over and down from the rail.  
This meant that Sam would never get to check her phone and realize that J2 had warned earlier that Tatsu had left the furthest building and was now heading back towards hers.  
It means she would never receive the message that Leo sensed something wasn't right and told her not to pursue Karai alone after getting the same message about Tatsu.  
It meant that she didn't know that Jay and Mikey had retrieved their gemstones and had made their way back and were now hiding out in an abandoned apartment across the street, meaning that right now Mikey could see everything that was happening as tears poured from his eyes and even though he was shrieking for Sam, he was in such a panic that he heard nothing but his heartbeat echoing throughout him.  
She would never know that Jay was literally in the crowd of people with the intentions of sneaking in through a back entrance in the main building, now looking upwards in horror at his sister as he collapsed to his knees as he watched the last few seconds before his last sibling would leave him from this world and join the others.  
She would never know that Donnie and April had retrieved their gemstones and had just run out onto the rooftop of the apartment complex across the street, and that while April was tending to one woman's wounds, Donnie just caught glimpse of his two older brothers running to catch up to a girl who had been kicked over the edge of the building, losing his shit since he couldn't come up with a plan quick enough that could save his friend in trouble.

She would never know the looks of horror on each of their faces as her limp body went soaring down towards the ground.  
Leo and Raph had run over and couldn't stop the tears that were already falling from their eyes, knowing their friends fate. Instinctively they both reached over the edge, as if that could somehow pull their friend back up towards where they were standing.

Donnie had crouched down and was a crying mess, tears instantly falling from his eyes the second Sam's hands were no longer attached to the railing. He knew he was nowhere near the roof of the building and that by the time he got there that it would be too late. For the first time in his life he was in a situation where there was nothing he could do or even plan for someone else to do that could possibly save his friend at which he mentally cursed himself as he screamed for his friend who was now plummeting towards the ground at a rapid speed.

Jay was literally screaming his lungs out as he stared up in horror at his sister who was reaching his spot on the ground way too quickly. At that point there was nothing he could do but scream for help as he watched his sister fall faster and faster to her death.

And then there was Mikey, who was just so scared and furious that he was pounding away at the glass window in front of him, as if breaking through the sturdy material would somehow allow him to reach his best friend. He beat his hand against the glass until he smelled blood and then finally stopped, feeling weak himself. Maybe it was that physical fatigue, but he stopped slamming into the window and instead just left his head pressed against the glass as he continued to cry and whimper his friend's name, dragging his bloodied hand down the glass, wishing he could somehow just grab onto her.

No one wanted to watch her land, but something in them wouldn't let any of them look away from her. These were the last seconds where they would ever see her and they wanted to remember positive and cheerful images of her, but something in each of them prevented them from looking away from the gruesome scene they knew was coming.

Suddenly, a small portal opened up. No one knew where it came from, but it opened just in time and swallowed Sam up. As soon as her body passed through the portal, it closed up and vanished, erasing any trace of its existence.  
The guys froze, tears still in everyone's eyes and vomit being released from Jay's mouth as they all processed what just happened.  
They were terrified and none of them knew what to think, but they realized one thing: Sam's body wasn't crushed into the concrete.  
This meant that Sam was still possibly alive, and that was enough to make everyone continue to fight on.

**AHHHHHHHH I'm sorry that this isn't even an update and instead is me just cleaning up this chapter, since there were tons of typos and parts that didn't emphasize what I wanted them to when I uploaded it the first time.**

**Things have been interesting this summer. Like, a mix of it was just wanting to relax since last semester left me so freaking drained. I want to become a teacher, I really do, but my university made me so depressed for a solid 2 months or so, and I was actually supposed to graduate and didn't, so there was that.**

**That and for years now I never had a desk because there was just so much crap in my room and so I would literally type papers and lesson plans and everything uncomfortably in my bed and honestly I think I put off writing for a while because of that discomfort. Like I know that's horrible to say, but it's partially true. That and I was just always typing and in front of my computer to the point that I think I became sick of it and just didn't want to type. Of course ironically, now that summer is over, I FINALLY HAVE A DESK and my creative juices are flowing. Not gonna lie, I might rush this arc a little bit only because when I listen to music, my mind is already playing out scenes from the next upcoming scenes and moments that will come about once the group finally returns home. **

**After saying that, I can still confirm that this series is not dead, but I also don't want to lie and make it sound like I'll be back soon. In 8 weeks my life will no longer be scripted for me for the first time in my life. I may have a lot of free time because of that, but it also depends on what comes about in my career in being a sub, a long term sub, or possibly even jumping right into a teaching position.**

**I honestly have no idea what's to come, or how soon I may update again, but I do know for a fact that in some point in life I will officially update again. **

**Until then, take care to whoever may read this, and if you ever bookmarked or saved or whatever to this series, then I hope you're willing to stay with me and continue reading when the time comes. Love you all 3000, and I seriously mean that. This story is like my baby and the support that I've received over time truly means the world to me.**

**Until next time my peoples **


	5. Chapter 59

**Any references to TMNT or anything from popular media and culture is NOT MINE. I only own my OC's. Any references to "TMNT Out of the Shadows" DO NOT BELONG TO ME. Only my additions that I came up with myself belong to me. Anything from the films or other series ARE NOT MINE, only my OC's and my ideas that I have added onto the story FOR FUN. ****  
****Thank you. **

Chapter #59

***Still Tuesday May 24****th****, 2016. Now 5:00p.m. in the evening***

"What happened?!" Raph bellowed as he and Leo rushed into the lair.  
They had gotten word from everyone else that they had returned to the original hideout and the two oldest turtles wanted answers of any kind at this point as to what the hell had just happened to their friend.  
Both turtles turned directly towards the third oldest, their brainiest brother, and waited for him to say something.  
Donnie had been leaning back in a rolling chair and not exactly in a comfortable position. That was also due to the fact that this chair was not like the one he had built out of skateboards to fit his shell, but also because of the angle in which he was leaning back. He was upset and he was frustrated and the emotional frustration was nulling the actual physical discomfort.  
"Well?" Raph huffed.  
Donnie slightly turned the chair and faced him, moving only his ankle as he made the slight turn.  
Raph was so disgruntled and panicked that he couldn't process what Donnie's posture meant.  
"Raph," Leo said as he placed a hand on his brother's shoulder, "you're not the only one who's been through this multiple times now. Let him process this as well."

Raph was now taking a good and long look at his brother and was now registering that Donnie was emotionally drained. How many times had they all now seen Sam almost lose her life or end up in serious danger? It was basically a dangerous pattern that wasn't ending. Something definitely needed to change, but that could be discussed at a later time. Right now the group needed to discuss what happened and how they were going to handle it…but seeing Sam almost die or get injured this many times now was definitely draining and was beginning to take a toll on everyone involved.  
Raph was still very alarmed, but he backed off in regards to verbally pestering his brother as he walked away and leaned against the wall next to Mikey, both leaning in a spot close by to the monitors.

Donnie closed his eyes and ran his hands down his face, pushing his glasses up on the top of his head, before adjusting himself and sitting up.  
He fixed his glasses and then spun the chair around so that he was now facing all of his brothers.  
"Alright, first and foremost, we need to create a timeline and figure out what the hell happened. We can't plan anything without knowing all the details. Is there a white board down here?" he asked as he turned towards J2.  
"Yeah! Give me a second" he said as he rushed into another room and returned back with a big white board on wheels.  
Donnie sluggishly stood up and walked over. As he uncapped the marker he noticed how J2 seemed very wired and shaky. He could sense that the man wasn't sure how to react in this situation. Their Jay had witnessed as much as they had, but this man was new to this type of situation, especially since this alternate New York was supposedly safer than the city they came from.  
Donnie gave him a small smile. "Thanks" he said, loud enough and in a way that he hoped would put the man at some ease.  
"Alright, so we all split up. April and I-"  
"Wait, where is April?" Leo asked.  
"Innnn another room" Donnie said awkwardly, barely turning his head to face his brother.  
"Alright then" Leo said, his eyes squinted in a curious manner. "We'll come back to that. Anyway, Raph and I followed Karai as she followed Sam. You went with April, and then Jay was tailed by Mikey."  
Donnie was drawing lines next to names in bubbles on the white board.  
"Okay, so when did we all sense that something was wrong?"  
"Tatsu stopped tailing Jay" Mikey stated. "I checked in with J2 about Tatsu's location and when he found him, apparently he had left the building rather quickly with the crowds of people leaving due to the fire alarm being pulled."

"I sent out a message to everyone, but I don't think Sam got it" J2 added.  
"What makes you say that?"  
"Here." J2 then went over and brought up security camera footage that he had recorded using an online screencast program. "Right here, she looks down at her phone, but that was seconds before Karai entered the room with her hostage. I think Sam didn't read the full message because she was focused protecting herself."  
"Pause it" Leo stated. He looked at the time frame of the paused clip as he pulled out his shell cell. He sighed heavily as he put his phone back in his pocket. "She never received our message. We told her to hold tight and wait for us before pursuing Karai any further. I sent that after getting the message about Tatsu, but obviously she never got it."  
"Why wouldn't she answer her phone? It was silent so nobody would have heard it" Raph grumbled.  
"Probably to avoid making any unnecessary noises or movements" said Donnie. "It was a good tactic, but she should have checked it before leaving the room, especially if Karai had left and the danger was no longer present."  
"She knows better than that…" Mikey muttered.  
"What happened next?" Donnie asked.  
"We took the damn elevator. I thought it would be quick, but then we got her message that she was pursuing Karai alone. We had no idea she didn't know about Tatsu either, but I made us take the damn-"  
"Enough" Leo barked. "we didn't have grappling hooks, so the elevator was our quickest way of reaching her."  
"But using the stairs would at least have allowed her to see us. Look" Raph said as he pointed towards the videos now being displayed on the screen.  
The video showed Sam entering the stairwell and looking down. Even though Sam said nothing in the video, they both knew that she was expecting to see them.  
"If she had seen us then she would have stopped and you know it! We should have called and-"  
"And what? Exposed her to Karai while she was hiding under the desk?" Jay nastily cut in. "Give yourself a break. There's nothing you could have done. There was no way you could get to her faster than the way that you took, and that idiot should have checked her phone! If she would have used her damn head then she would be here right now!" he began to shout.

His breaths started to become very rapid and very fast. Leo walked over and stood next to him, placing his hand on the man's shoulder.  
Jay closed his eyes but couldn't stop a lone tear from escaping. As rapid as his breathing was, having Leo, who was like his duplicate, standing next to him definitely helped him feel a bit calmer.  
"So Sam headed up to the top floor by herself, and that's when things went sour. J2, do you have any security footage?" Donnie asked as he turned around to face him.  
"I hacked in, but I haven't watched it yet. I was…a bit shaken up" he said as he clenched his hands together.  
"We'll watch it together" Mikey cut in. "We're all here for each other."

J2 pulled up the video and the aura in the room became very tense very fast. As the video played the group watched as Sam was surrounded by smoke bombs which was then followed by two shadowed figures jumping out from behind the entry way to the roof and begin to fight Sam.  
"Wait, who's throwing the smoke bombs if there's two figures already fighting?" Leo asked.  
The group continued to watch before a loud gasp escaped from each of them.  
"Is that-"  
"Not possible" Jay choked out through a mumbled voice.  
Donnie's hand trembled over top of his keyboard as he saw a recognizable face from pictures that Sam had shown them of her siblings.  
"What the fuck?!" J2 accidentally called out. "Chuck?! But, he doesn't look like that anymore! He's a teenager!" he said, now sounding more panicked than his alternate.  
"It has to be an illusion" Mikey cut in.  
"Well the illusion is fighting Sam!" Raph called out.  
"Karai must have something" Donnie said as he replayed the video over and over. Whatever she did, she somehow brought Chuck back or made something look like Chuck. Whatever it was, Sam fell for it."  
"Brian too?!" J2 shouted at the screen.  
"That's messed up man" Mikey mumbled, opening and closing his fists both in the anger he felt that Tatsu and Karai could come up with such a cruel plan, and also in the pain he knew that Sam must have felt as two of her siblings came violently charging towards her.  
Donnie started snapping his fingers. "Look up news casts. Find every recent news article in the past couple of hours."  
J2 and Jay began fiddling with the controls of the screens until as many news stations were displayed at one time.  
"Here" Donnie said as he walked over towards a table where they had dumped multiple tablets they had been using when searching online for hints of their enemies whereabouts. "Use these to search for any articles while I analyze the broadcasts. Look for anything related to Karai and Tatsu and their whereabouts. Were suspicious figures seen, is there any news about the gemstones? Things like that."

Everyone nodded and got to work.  
"You too" he said as he turned towards one of the door ways.  
The two Jay's started towards the doorway, but nothing happened.  
"We know you're there so just come out already" Raph called out as he plugged a tablet into a nearby outlet, extending the cord so that he could sit in a chair closer towards the rest of the group.  
S2 crept out from the doorway and inched her way over towards the rest of the group.  
"I told you to go home" J2 remarked. "It's not appropriate for you to be here right now."  
"She's me, to a certain extent. I can't just leave. Besides, I'm the worst at keeping secrets and I could accidentally spill hers."  
That got everyone else's attention.  
"Don't worry I won't….as long as I'm down here" she said softly as she hugged herself tight.  
"I said to go home so that these guys wouldn't see their friend, to a certain extent" J2 said in a rather nasty tone.  
"Newsflash, teenagers don't listen" Jay said in a frustration.  
"Unfortunately" J2 replied. "Well, they've seen you now, so make yourself useful."

About 20 minutes later, at 5:40p.m. Raph had finally lost his patience.  
"No one is finding anything, not even you. Any conclusions yet?" he groaned.  
"This was a set up" Donnie mumbled.  
"How so?" Leo asked, now invested in the conversation, along with everyone else as faces rose from screens.  
"Karai and Tatsu knew they would both be followed since there was more of us than them, but they made sure to say and do whatever they needed so that Sam would follow them up to the roof. They probably knew they didn't have the greatest chance at making their plan work, but they ran with it anyway based on their options. They said something in just the right way so that Sam would follow them onto the roof, and they succeeded in getting Sam up there alone. Instead of using her siblings to kill her while she was vulnerable and alone, they distracted her and lead her into the trap of being taken away by the portal that just suddenly appeared."  
He then turned towards his older brothers. "April and I secured the gemstones from our building, and Mikey and Jay secured theirs. The fact that there aren't any articles about Karai and Tatsu tells us that they went into hiding rather than trying to secure more gemstones through break-ins or using violence. That could mean one of two things. Either Karai and Tatsu need to find more gemstones and went into hiding in order to create a new plan, or getting the gemstones was never their plan at all."  
"This whole thing could have been to lure Sam into a trap" Raph growled. "Kraang was thrilled that she was a match for one of his selective mutagen when we fought on his ship. This could be the same thing."  
"We need to put this into account from now on" Leo chimed in. "No one ever thought that Sam's powers themselves would make her a target. She's always a target just like the rest of us, but now that threat to her is even greater."  
"What could they want her for?" Jay asked. "What's so special about her powers?"  
"The mutagen specifically functions within parts of her brain. Remember when we discovered that the mutagen affects her temporal lobe, and it affects all the different parts of the brain associated with temporal lobe, hence why if she only witnessed part of an event than she went crazy, or if a past memory had been triggered and she felt the need to protect someone then she went crazy? And remember what we told you happened when we fought Krang, how Sam was used and somehow Krang could control her mind because the mutagen affects these parts of her brain?"  
"She can be used as a pawn now, for his own twisted pleasure" Jay mumbled. He placed his trembling hands behind his head as he sat down in the desk chair, his knees also noticeably shaking. "That bastard is using my sister as if she's a piece of his own tech" he said through gritted teeth.  
"So let's get ahead."  
Jay looked up and turned towards Michelangelo who had spoken such confident words.  
Mikey turned towards Donnie. "What can we do to get ahead, figure out Krang's moves? What will he want to do with Sam?"  
Donnie sighed. "Unfortunately that list is endless, and too painful to even think about. However…you're right" he said, his look now turning into one of focus and concentration.  
He walked over and began fiddling with the controls of the screens in front of him, now changing the screens so they once again displayed Sam during her final battle on the roof top instead of displaying the different news casts.  
"Nothing shows how Chuck and Brian got there." He turned around and pointed at the groups new dimensional alternates. "S2, contact your brother. J2 you do the same. Figure out where they were when this all happened. That will tell us whether Karai actually needed their bodies or whether this is some type of mechanical trick being set up by Krang and Karai."

The two humans nodded and removed themselves from the room as they called their siblings.  
"Um, Don? I don't think it was them" Raph mentioned.  
Donnie turned back towards the screen. None of them had seen what they were now witnessing because they were so focused on Sam earlier on when the events occurred, but right now they watched as Chuck and Brian somehow turned into Raph and Leo.  
"Well, that was unexpected" Leo stated in shock. "How is that possible? We weren't even on the rooftop yet."  
"Because it has nothing to do with actual bodies" Donnie declared. "In a couple of minutes those two will come in stating that their siblings were elsewhere."  
Right on cue, S2 and J2 returned with the exact news that Donnie was expecting. Chuck was hanging out with some friends at a comic book shop in upper Manhattan and Brian was at a culinary class. Within a couple of minutes, security footage credited both claims of the men's whereabouts.  
"What's this mean Donnie?" Jay asked.  
Donnie waved Jay, J2, and his brothers over so that they could help analyze the footage.  
"Do you see Karai holding anything?" he asked as he rewound the footage to the beginning when Sam first stood on the roof.  
"You think she used an alien device to trick Sam's mind?" Leo asked.  
"Not just trick her, but to actually make two beings appear. Is anything connected to her head, to her hands? Anything out of the ordinary? Or…."  
Donnie rewound the footage once more and paid close attention. He noticed that there was an ear piece in her ear throughout the video when he watched it the previous time, and now he focused on who she might have been talking to as the fight went on.  
"Tatsu…"  
All eyes were aimed at a figure who was very well hidden in the background.  
Jay zoomed in once he was able to work the controls and finally have them find Tatsu amongst the smoke that was clearing in the background.  
"He has a tranquilizer gun, I didn't even realize she had been weakened by that earlier" Jay snarled.  
"There's something else in his hands…" Leo trailed off. "Look familiar?"  
"Not in the slightest" Donnie cut in, "which tells me that these two received a new toy to play with thanks to their new agreement with Krang. He seems to love letting the bad guys test things out for him. Whatever this new device is, it allowed actual beings to appear and attack. The tough question now is how does it work? And that, I will need a lot more evidence to determine."

"For now it's better than nothing" Leo stated as he backed away from the screen, not ready to watch Sam fall once again.  
All the turtles seemed to be that way, including both Asian males in the room.  
S2 was the only one who hadn't seen Sam fall earlier and instead heard her brother shouting about it at the screen.  
For the first time, she was watching as she watched her alternate fall to what would have been assumed her doom, only to have her fall into a portal that randomly appeared in thin air. There were news reports about a girl falling from the building into this portal, but like most news, it was already being replaced with other insane stories, some important and some silly and stupid.

She felt her mouth go dry and her head felt dizzy. She was honestly terrified to leave the lair in fear that these enemies would come for her, thinking she was the Sam that was on screen. It also freaked her out that in another world, this could have been her daily life.  
S2 shook her head and rewound the footage some and watched the enemies up above.  
Her alternate was brave, courageous, and a total badass that never took no for an answer and fought until the end, so she needed to make herself useful and watch this footage that no one else could stand to watch. She decided to do the same thing Donatello had done moments ago. He had changed perspectives and watched Tatsu instead of Karai and that had been a breaking point for him, so she decided to do the same thing as she now watched Karai instead of the falling Sam.  
A gasp left her lips as she watched the video once more, this time focusing solely on the woman known as Karai.  
The gasp caught Donnie's attention as he turned around. He was about to comfort the girl in front of him and remove her from the screen, assuming her gasp was a pained reaction from seeing her alternates fated fall. Instead, he realized her gasp was from seeing the blue weapon being held in Karai's hands.  
"Guys! Look!" he shouted back towards the rest of the group who was about to walk away from the screen.  
They carefully walked back over as Donnie pointed towards the blue weapon in the woman's hand.  
"What the hell is that?" Raph asked as he squinted, trying to get a better look at what she was holding.  
"I'm serious when I say this, but it looks like a lightsaber. Why is Karai holding a lightsaber?" Mikey asked.  
"Because it's not a Jedi lightsaber, it must be another new device Karai was given."  
"That explains the sudden portal then, right?" Leo asked.  
"I'd assume so. It's the only explanation based on the info we've got. And once again, the tough question is, where did she go?" Donnie asked with a gulp.  
"Great, so we got some basic answers, and more questions. Now what?" Raph growled as he threw his hands up at his sides.  
Leo and Jay turned towards Donnie.  
"Is…is there anything we can do?" Leo asked softly.  
Donnie leaned his head back and pursed his lips. "Just…give me a second. Tatsu and Karai I'm assuming are still here since they were more focused on Sam than the gemstones. We have no idea what else they have with them, and I'm assuming it's only them here which means…"

He then plopped down in the closest chair, leaning forward and putting his hands in his head.  
"Which means what?" Jay asked, a little too impatiently.  
"Which means we could have just left our New York without us, and possibly with a lot of other villains to deal with."  
The room grew so silent that you could hear a pin drop.  
So many things now needed to be thought over. What was going on at home? Where was Hun if he wasn't here? He was free with Karai, so what was he doing now? Did anyone else escape prison with Tatsu? What was happening here in this new dimension? What were Tatsu and Karai's next moves? What new devices did they have that would cause more chaos? Where was Sam?! What danger was she in? What would happen when she returned? What if she never returned?

Everyone had these thoughts in their mind. Everyone except for one of the turtle brothers.  
Donnie slowly picked his head up when he heard the click-clacking of keys on the keyboard, and his eyes grew wide when he realized which brother was utilizing his tech.  
"Mikey?" he questioned carefully.  
The other's turned their heads immediately.  
"Mikey?" Raph asked, but in a much rougher tone.  
Leo put his hand up when he sensed Raph about to march over towards his youngest brother.  
"Watcha doing baby bro?" Leo asked cautiously, Donnie now rushing over to inspect the damage on the monitors…only to be amazed at what his brother had actually done.  
Mikey turned around to face his brothers.  
"Sam is the number one priority. She has a tracker in her phone just like the rest of us-"  
"Sam isn't here" Raph cut in.  
"But she will be! Krang will put her back once he's done using her."  
"I'm sorry, using her?" Jay asked with an infuriated smile, displaying his difficulty in hearing this conversation.  
"Krang used Sam to mess with us on the Technodrome, so he's doing the same thing now! He even said then that she was a perfect mutagen match!" Mikey replied, talking loudly and using his arms as he spoke. "He has to be doing the same thing now, he's using her to get to us!"  
"He's right" Donnie cut in. "It makes sense. If he wanted Sam dead then she would have just fell off the building. And the way we all are now, in a panicked state, is because we know so little."  
"So now Sam is just a pawn?" Jay bit back.  
"That's what Krang wants to use her for. Us losing our minds and acting without thinking allows Krang to win. We can't allow that."  
Donnie paused to take a breath before continuing on.  
"Krang may still assume we don't know about these new devices, so he thinks we're still clueless. We need to work with the facts we know and remain calm. We cannot freak out and act rashly or else Krang will take advantage of us and will win easily."  
He turned and smiled at his younger brother.  
"Mikey did a good job in pulling up the program for tracking Sam's phone. I'm such a mess right now that I hadn't even thought about it, but once Sam returns, this will instantly let us know of her location."  
"So…Mikey had a good idea?" Raph questioned in amusement.  
"Mikey had a good idea" Leo said with a slow nod, and a small grin on his face.  
"I just did what Sam would do if she was here."  
"What's that?" S2 asked.  
All eyes turned towards her, mainly because people kept forgetting she was in the room since she was so silent.  
Mikey clenched his fists together.  
"She would figure out what needed to be done one step at a time. She's like me which means she never shuts up, so she would be barking 10 orders every minute. She would have a whole process set up once she knew all the facts and would keep making plans as new information came up. She doesn't take breaks until she's about to collapse. Sam doesn't stop fighting until the end."

S2 gave him a small smile. "So what steps need to be followed? How do we win?"  
"I'll call Casey back home" Leo stated. "I'll let him know we suspect only Karai and Tatsu are here with no other back up, so they need to keep a close eye on anyone in custody back home, especially the people Karai and Hun were meeting throughout their travels to different countries. That and they need to locate Hun before it's too late."  
Leo walked out of the room as he went to make his call.  
"Raph" Donnie called out, "You look over security footage with me. Let's see if we can figure out where Karai and Tatsu went to after their fight with Sam."  
Raph nodded and walked closer towards the screens.  
"S2 and J2, contact your families and friends and tell them that they should stay inside and away from people for a while. Tell them to secretly have that information circulate so that people stay off the streets and away from our enemies grasp."  
The two nodded and grabbed their phones.  
"Wait!" Jay called out. "Let me help you set them up so that your voices and calls can't be tracked. That way our enemies can't figure out where we are when those messages first get sent out.  
"Mikey…" Donnie trailed off as he faced his younger brother.  
"I'm waiting for Sam" Mikey stated bluntly. "I need to know she's okay as soon as possible."  
Donnie shot him a small sympathetic smile.  
"I know bro, she'd be doing the same thing if the roles were reversed" he said as he placed his hand on his brother's shoulder. "Mikey, how did you know how to access this program in order to track Sam's phone?" he asked lightly.  
"Sam taught it to me" He replied bluntly.  
Donnie nodded his head, "Oh, okay. Got it" he said with a smile.  
He then turned to help Raph as he changed the images on the rest of the screens, leaving the one that Mikey was staring at alone.  
'So what else has Sam taught you that I know nothing about?' Donnie wondered to himself.  
He got the videos set up so that Raph could begin watching for Karai and Tatsu's next move.  
"Oh! I need to go check on April…and April" Donnie stated a bit awkwardly.  
"Um, okay. I'll be here checking the camera footage" Raph replied.  
"Thanks man" Donnie stated and then dashed off.

Each person now had their own task and they suddenly felt a bit better. They all were still very uneasy and frightened, but they knew that this is how they would win. Working together, being ready for the next move, being one family instead of multiple frantic beings. If they had each other then they knew they could do anything. Now, they just needed to find Sam, and they hoped that time would come soon.

**Hello and thank you to those that are still supporting this series! I've FINALLY completed another chapter. Sorry it's shorter than usual, but this seemed like a good stopping point with enough material to upload to display what happened since the last cliffhanger.  
If you have any feedback then it is always greatly appreciated! Thanks for your support! :) **


	6. Chapter 60

**Any references to TMNT or anything from popular media and culture is NOT MINE. I only own my OC's. Any references to "TMNT Out of the Shadows" DO NOT BELONG TO ME. Only my additions that I came up with myself belong to me. Anything from the films or other series ARE NOT MINE, only my OC's and my ideas that I have added onto the story FOR FUN. ****  
****Thank you. **

Chapter #60

***Still Tuesday May 24****th****, 2016. Now 8:00p.m. in the evening***

S2 had carefully and quietly returned to the secret lair underground with J2, who had been kind enough to escort her out from and back to the lair so that her identity was unknown as she retrieved some items from a nearby mini mart. She knew that each of the four turtles and Jay's alternate were busy with things they needed to take care of, including calming and focusing their minds. After Leo had contacted his friends back home about the fact that only 2 of their enemies (which S2 quickly learned that they had a lot of them!) were possibly in this new dimension, he decided that everything else was being handled and that he would make himself useful by sitting on top of the nearest rooftop. He wouldn't go far, but being a ninja, taking action was what he did best, and looking for signs of his enemies was better than doing nothing. That and the fact that he couldn't concentrate down below where there was nothing for him to do, so alternating between meditating and roaming the rooftops was what he needed to do to keep his mind calm and at ease.

Raph was the same way, but his brothers (and Raph himself) knew better than to let him go above ground. His anger would get the best of him before he would even be able to process what he was doing, so he stayed underground and moved to an empty room far enough away where he could move around and practice and slash his sais as much and as loud as he needed to. That way his mind was focused, and he was close enough by that he was ready whenever his brothers called and needed him.

Donnie was currently tending to April and April. Once Leo had returned from calling his friends back home, that's when he realized that he still didn't know where their friend April was. He wandered throughout the multiple open rooms until he found his brother Donatello and April talking, only for there to be an additional red haired woman dressed in a purple shirt, white lab coat, and brown pants lying on the couch behind them. The two explained that she happened to be in the building when they were retrieving the gemstones and that she freaked out and panicked when she saw a woman who looked exactly like her only with different hair. April had to knock her alternate unconscious with a technique that the turtles had taught her, one that wouldn't hurt or leave physical damage, but would get the job done. She and Donatello didn't feel that it would be safe or appropriate to leave her there and decided to secretly bring her with them once they snuck away from the building through a back door that led to the alley behind the building. Then, they brought her down to the underground lair where they could continue to check up on her.

Michelangelo was still sitting in front of the monitors, hoping and waiting for something to happen that signaled he could go and save and care for his friend. He had become quite fidgety as he rocked back and forth in his seat, his eyes glued to the screen for almost a solid hour. His brothers believed that he was picturing the worst scenarios possible as to what was happening to their friend after she had entered the portal. Because of this, J2 found some comic books he and his team had brought down when they needed to take a break and decided to allow Mikey to read them. He was currently still seated in front of the computer screens awaiting a signal to appear that Sam's phone had been tracked, but he was now peeking up at the screen while his face was buried within a comic book he had never read before.

Jay was also in a state where he couldn't stay still, so he had joined S2 and his alternate on their walk as they went to purchase some drinks. On the way back he had made his way up towards the rooftops to pay Leonardo a visit while J2 had gone into the other room to see if Donatello needed any help taking care of the unconscious April, that and to see if the new April needed anything as well.

That left S2 alone in the kitchen. She had purchased and was now preparing some tea for her new friends in an attempt to help them feel calm during this tough time. It had been about 2-3 hours since their friend had been taken to who knows where, and all she could do was sit and make some tea and hot chocolate. It made her feel pathetic, weak, and worthless. Her alternate was so strong and always seemed to have a job: prepping the tech, instructing others how to use it, hacking cameras and analyzing footage, strategizing a new plan, preparing weapons, or even just sparring with the turtles and helping them either stay calm or get pumped up. She was incredible! S2 couldn't believe that in another dimension that she was such a badass who could probably take on the world herself if she needed to, and she had such an awesome team that she was paired with in doing so.  
And then here she was, making tea and hot chocolate so that the brothers could continue to remain calm while they busied their minds with activities so that they were always alert for whenever they were finally needed.  
She sighed, wishing she could be doing something more useful to the group, something that her alternate would do. Within the short time that she had known Sam, S2 could predict that her alternate would be on the computers with Mikey looking up information on the computers, helping tend to this dimensions April with Donnie, helping calm down Raph by sparring with him, and then roaming the rooftops and looking for clues as to where Karai and Tatsu escaped to with Leo.

She let out one last long sigh and reminded herself that she was not Sam. She was none of the things her alternate was, but that didn't mean she couldn't be helpful. She would never be able to do the things that Sam could do in order to help, but she could do more than just sit on her ass and twiddle her thumbs.  
She poured a cup of tea and then of hot chocolate into 2 mugs and snapped the lids onto them. She decided that she would visit the leader in blue up top first. To her surprise, she heard him make his way into the lair and then into one of the vacant rooms.  
Deciding this was perfect timing since he could decide to go back above ground at any time, S2 took the cups and as silently as she could she made her way towards the room where Leonardo was located.  
She peeked inside and saw that he was sitting criss cross within the dimly lit room. It was dead silent, so S2 crept over towards him while attempting not to make a sound while she slowly crouched down and placed the cups rather far behind from where he was sitting since she didn't want to get too close and disturb him.  
Of course, she failed miserably. As soon as she turned around to leave she heard his voice as he stated "you don't have to leave so suddenly you know."  
She froze, not sure what to do in this situation. Her body calmed as she replied with an "oh, okay."  
"You can turn around as well" he said with a hidden smirk.  
"Um, I know just…" she clenched her hands together as she continued to face away from him, "My Jay mentioned that you guys might be upset with me being down here and that I should keep my distance…but I felt that it was wrong to just sit back and do nothing, you know?"  
Leo couldn't help but smile as he continued to meditate and face the opposite direction.  
"You're more like her than you know."  
S2 turned slightly enough to see Leo wave her over to sit with him. She picked up the cups and brought them over with her as she sat in front of her new turtle companion.  
"Two?" he asked, his eyes now open.  
"Uh, one is tea since Jay said you guys drink tea, and the other is hot chocolate since I thought it was rather cold down here."  
'Probably because you wear so little like Sam says you do' Leo comically thought to himself. Of course, he would never say such a thing since it could be offensive, but he couldn't help but think back to Sam's comments of dislike as to how her alternate wore more revealing clothes than she did.

That quickly his slight grin transformed into a frown.  
"Thinking about her?" S2 asked softly.  
Leo nodded his head. "It's difficult not to, but I know thinking of the worst will only distract me for when the time comes and she needs us."  
"That's really mature of you to think that way" S2 stated, pulling her knees up to her chin, wrapping her arms around her legs as her chin rested atop her knees.  
"Someone has to think that way, or else none of us will be ready when Sam comes back. She'll need us for many reasons, so we need to be ready to act at any moment."  
"Many reasons?"  
"If she's hurt, if she's scared, hell if she's hungry then we need to be there for her" he teased lightly.  
"This isn't your first time seeing her get hurt is it?"  
He paused. "How much has she told you?"  
"Everything from the moment she met you guys to her joining the Foot to fighting and being controlled by Kraang" S2 replied nonchalantly.  
"I see. So you know about all the times she's terrified us."  
"Is that the real reason you're so calm right now? Because you've had to deal with this type of situation before?"  
"You're more like Sam than I thought" he groaned.  
S2 couldn't help but laugh. "I guess she questions everything as well?"  
"Oh yeah. Has to get in everyone's mind…although she's usually right. She always knows what to say and how to get someone to share how they feel. For Donnie and I that's extremely helpful since we usually don't share how we feel until the last second before we've reached our breaking point."  
"Why's that?" S2 asked as she titled her head.  
Leo shrugged his shoulders. "I dunno. We've just always been that way. Raph and Mikey easily communicate how they feel, although Raph does so rather violently and Mikey usually jokes around and fakes it until he breaks and 'pouts it out' before he actually sits down and truly shares how he feels. But Donnie and I have always been more secluded and need that push in order to communicate that we're feeling anything negative at all."  
S2 pursed her lips as she looked down at her hands, which were now placed in her lap as she sat criss cross.  
"I'm sorry that this has become such a familiar feeling for you." She peeked up at him. "Are you still going to let her fight with you when she comes back?"  
"Pshh, I'll never tell her no unless she's bleeding out. She's so stubborn and hard-headed that there would be no point. That and the fact that I tried to do that to a couple of my brothers once and it ended terribly. I'm definitely going to have to set some ground rules, but maybe I can work something out with her. She'll probably be shaken up after whatever has happened to her, so I'll talk to her about taking it easy while also reflecting on what happened that led to her being put in her situation."  
"Let me guess, you've had a lot of practice talking to her in calm way that also taught her a lesson?" S2 asked with a smirk.  
"I think you ask too many questions" Leo stated in a sassy way, receiving a laugh from the girl.  
"By the way, am I the first one you've visited?"  
S2 shot him a confused look. "Yeah, why?"  
"Because if you made jugs of these drinks then they're going to get cold for everyone else" he smirked.  
S2's eyes went wide as she realized what he was saying before she dashed out of the room, thanking him along the way.  
Leo closed his eyes with a smile. 'Yup, she's definitely like our Sam, just with a different sense of style.'  
He sighed, hoping that he would see his tomboy sister soon. He took a sip of the tea in front of him before relaxing his mind and returning to his meditation.

S2 clamped the lids onto the next set of cups and quickly made her way into what seemed like a lounge since there were a few couches and more comfortable and cushioned chairs.  
She peeked over and noticed that Jay and April were now sleeping in some of the recliners while Donatello was scrolling through what had to be at least 5 devices surrounding him. The largest was a laptop with all sorts of wires coming out of it, some even connected to the tech along his wrist (some of which had been newly added) with an additional tablet with a mini keyboard connected to it, 2 additional tablets (one with a stand and one in his lap) and then a small GPS to top of the pile of tech that surrounded him.

S2 was hesitant to enter the room since she didn't want to break his concentration, but just like Leonardo, he had already sensed her presence.  
"You're not bothering me if that's what you're thinking" he stated, peeking up from the screens for reassurance.  
Sam motioned with a small nod and carefully sat criss cross in front of him.  
"Soooooo what's all this?" she asked curiously as she placed the small tray with the two cups to the side of her, making sure it was away from all the screens and wires.  
"A mix of everything. April's medical records in case there's anything I need to be aware of, articles and classified files about any other gems or materials our enemies may try to steal, news reports about what happened earlier, feeds into updated and ongoing police reports and records-"  
"How can you look through all of that at one time?" she asked, her eyes wide.  
Donnie couldn't help but chuckle.  
"When you've been the brains of the family, so the mathematician, engineer, doctor, and so much more, it just becomes second nature. Your brain takes in as much as it can since it's what you're good at and it quickly becomes your role and responsibility to the point that it just becomes inevitable and much as it does pleasurable."  
"Ahhh…so you're insane?"  
Donnie scoffed.  
"Oh relax, I'm not saying it as an insult. But you just admitted that you enjoy pushing yourself to your mental limit. I mean you may be able to handle tackling multiple things at once, but it also seems like you do it to the point of exhaustion" S2 stated boldly.  
"You do realize there are numerous careers where people do the exact same thing, right?" Donnie questioned, a mix of humor and mockery in his tone.  
"Of course, but you live a life where you don't have to push yourself every second of every day, but from what you just said and from what my twin has told me, you enjoy doing this on your own free will" she said with a sassy head tilt.

Donnie just smiled and shook his head.  
"Sounds like you two have talked a lot in the short amount of time that you've known each other."  
"Yeah…" S2 trailed off. She leaned backwards and put her weight momentarily on her palms as she extended her legs forwarded in front of her.  
"You okay?"  
S2 looked over to see that Donatello was now looking at her, compared to the rest of the conversation where his face had been buried within his mob of glowing screens.  
"Uh, yeah. Just thinking."  
"About?"  
She pursed her lips together. "Stuff"  
"If it's about Sam then you can tell me. I'm not gonna cry or anything."  
S2 looked towards her feet as she bat them back and forth against one another.  
"Just thinking how wrong it is to admit I miss her when I've known her for a few days when you guys have known her for a couple of years" she mumbled softly.  
The typing stopped as Donnie looked back up at her.  
"It doesn't matter if you've known her for 5 minutes. Bonds are bonds. I'm sure she would be thrilled to know that she left an impact on you within such a short period of time."  
"Well yeah!" S2 replied with excitement. "She's incredible and literally the most badass chick I've probably met in my entire life! I do and don't wanna be her, you know?"  
Donnie nodded. "It's a tough situation. You want her strength and critical thinking skills, but not at the cost that she earned them. You want to say 'I wish I could be like you' but at the same time you can't."  
"I like the way you think" she stated as she pointed at him. "You know how to word things so that people keep their spirits up. You know, you would be a huge celebrity if you had your own talk show. I'd even be your first fan to help get things started."  
"Pshh, says the girl who slapped me the first day we met" he said with a full blown laugh.  
"Man, you're never gonna let me live that down, are you?" she asked as she nervously clenched her fists together.

His typing paused once more.  
"Sorry, I shouldn't have said that. I'm used to teasing Sam about past events like how she first came into our lives. Heh, now that I think about it, her entrance was even more chaotic since we ended up chasing her throughout the streets. Both Raph and Leo had to knock her out, and she even kicked Mikey in the face."  
"Huh, makes my violent theatrics look like child's play" S2 teased with a wide smile.  
"Oh your actions were more unexpected than anything for multiple reasons. I've never seen such a sassy Sam, and then the fact that Sam was the one slapping us. It was a lot to take in on top of the acts being violent themselves."  
"So from what I'm hearing, your families lives are just a hectic mess and every day is a new day for more crazy to occur."  
Donnie dragged his hands down his face.  
"That's honestly one of the best ways to sum it up. But hey, we are literally teenage mutant ninja turtles. Crazy just comes with the name."  
The two couldn't help but let out a laugh.

"If it means anything" Donnie said as he ended the silence that followed the laughter, "you comfort people the same way she does. You two probably have more in common than you know."  
S2 shot him a kindhearted smile.  
"Thank you. How are you holding up? I get the sense that the insane amount of tech work is just as much a distraction as it is 'your responsibility and what you're good at."  
Donnie titled his head back as he closed his eyes.  
"I'm honestly hoping that the longer I stay busy then time will fly by quicker and finally she'll be here. I'm also thinking of what actions need to be taken once she returns."  
S2's face scrunched up.  
"Actions?"  
Donnie let out a long pained sigh.  
"Unfortunately this enemy has made it clear that he can control Sam due to the mutagen that runs through her veins. We don't know what else he is capable of doing and what tricks he might pull. What if he sends Sam back, only for her to be brainwashed to attack us again? What if she has a tracker on her so that Karai and Tatsu can be sent to attack us underground? Heck, what if the Sam that is sent home isn't even really Sam but really a clone? I mean earlier we saw footage of her siblings who passed away in our dimension and yet there they were clear as day! So-"  
"Tea for your thoughts?" S2 cut in.  
Donatello steadied his breathing and took the two cups from the girl.  
"Right. Thanks" he said softly.  
"Wow, I never realized how much needed to be thought about. I just thought you would bring her back, check for medical stuff and then everything would be okay. I guess you have to repeat this process every time something like this happenssssssss and that was an insensitive thing to ask" she stated as she slapped her hands onto her face, embarrassed by the fact that she had asked such an insensitive question.  
"Don't worry, you're just curious. I know you didn't mean to be cruel about it" he replied reassuringly.  
S2 peeked out from behind her fingers. "Still. I'm sorry. I shouldn't be asking questions about when Sam is in danger."  
"Don't be" Donnie stated as he shook his head and took a sip of the tea. "You hit the nail on the head though. We've had to think about things like this multiple times, preparing for all the 'what if' scenarios. It starts to take a toll on you after a while."  
"And that's when the habits come out?" S2 whispered.  
"I'm sure you've seen all four of our habits show themselves by now."  
"I wish there was a way I could make the situation better" she mumbled. "I've experienced moments where I didn't know where someone was, but never to this extent."  
"Really?" Donnie questioned as his brows rose. He pushed his glasses back up onto his face. "When, if I may ask."  
"My younger brother went out with some friends to one of the few shady parts of the city and didn't return home until later the next afternoon" she replied with an exaggerated eye roll. "I'm not saying that situation is anywhere near as serious as this one, but-"  
"You know what it's like to be scared and worried about a loved one. And trust me, we've had PLENTY of similar situations with Mikey, and those worries and fears can be just as serious as this situation. I can name more scenarios than I could count one either of our sets of hands."  
S2 couldn't help but chuckle.  
"Speaking of younger brothers, I don't think anyone has gone to check on yours yet. He's still glued to those monitors in the main room" she said gloomily.  
"Looks like your jobs as the alternate Sam aren't done yet" he teased.  
"Can I trust that you'll take care of yourself in here?" she said with a smirk.  
"Oh you're just like Sam alright" he mocked as he turned back to his screens, keeping his cups at a decent distance but within reach. "Thanks again for looking out" he said as he held up one of the cups."  
"No problem" she replied.  
With that, she made her way back to the kitchen and prepared to make the next few cups, only to come to a halt at the counter when a beeping sound began to go off.

S2 slowly turned around to see Michelangelo just as slowly rise from his seat, gently dropping the comic book that had been in his hand into the box by his side on the floor. His jaw dropped slightly and the mix of emotions within him prevented him from saying anything.  
"DONNIE!"  
S2 jumped as she heard Leo bellow his brother's name as he happened to pass by and check on his baby brother. He was grateful his instincts kicked in since the youngest obviously was struggling to think as the sensor went off that their friend's whereabouts had finally been located.

Raph also dashed into the room with Jay, April, and J2 not far behind them. Jay was huffing and puffing from his dash to the monitors as he placed a hand on Mikey's shoulders.  
"Can you zoom in?"  
Mikey nodded rapidly as his shaking hands began to type. Within a few seconds he narrowed the coordinates so that they knew exactly where Sam's phone was, thus hopefully telling them where Sam was.  
"It's okay I got it" Donnie said gently as he appeared behind his brother.  
Mikey nodded slowly, still struggling to use his words. He wanted to help and knew how to do a simpler job such as this, but Donnie was much more skilled and this was his specialty, so Mikey slowly backed away from the keyboards.  
"You did good bro" Raph said soothingly as he rubbed his hand on top of his brother's head.  
"So where is she?" April asked.  
"Classic Playground, a small park right by the Hudson."  
"Have we ever been there before?" Raph asked, trying to picture the location in his mind.  
"You guys haven't" Mikey replied.  
The other three gave him an odd look.  
"But you have, haven't you?" Leo asked.  
Mikey responded with a solid nod. "With rocket powered skateboards comes fun adventures very far away from Times Square and central Manhattan."  
"So Mr. sneaks away and doesn't tell his family" Donnie said as he paused his typing, "is this place safe for us?"  
"Yep. Unless Krang set any traps, it's located far enough away from buildings where we won't be seen. The park itself it at the bottom of a small hill, well, more so it slopes downward from the road and is partially hidden by trees."  
"You'll need a driver" J2 cut in. "Based on this map your brother just pulled up, the quickest route takes you down Henry Hudson Parkway and then makes you turn around twice to get on the right side of the road to escape and head back home. I can drop you guys off, turn the car around, and have it ready and waiting by the time you return to get her in the vehicle."  
Leo nodded. "So now we just need a-"  
"On it!" S2 shouted as she dashed out of the lair.  
"What?!" J2 called out as he quickly turned to see his family like friend leaving.  
"It's okay I got this! Meet me up top in 5 minutes!"  
And that fast she was gone.  
"What about the other April?" Jay asked.  
"I'll stay with her. You guys all go" April reassured.  
"You're the best" Raph said, giving his female companion a fist bump.  
"Well I'm perfect for this job anyway, I mean she is me after all" she said with a light laugh.

"If anything happens then call us. We'll all have our walkies on us" Leo declared.  
"Got it."  
Donnie finished sending the coordinates to the holographic projector on his wrist. He sighed as he turned to face the group that would be heading with him to rescue their friend.  
"Okay, so we all know the procedures, right?"  
"Uh, procedures?" J2 asked.  
Donnie turned towards their new human companion as he spoke.  
"Once the four of us started fighting the Foot, we had to prepare for situations like this, and we elaborated on those measures once Krang became a threat as well. Just because Sam is back, it doesn't mean that everything is okay and good to go."  
"You mean, like if she's been brainwashed to attack you guys when she sees you? Stuff like that?"  
"Yeah, stuff like that. That or the whole thing being a set up. Sam's phone could have been dropped in the park and she could still be missing, but if we charge in without thinking then we could easily fall into a trap."  
"We can talk more once we get into a vehicle, but we need to go." He turned to leave but turned towards April once more. "If anything goes wrong-"  
"I know, I know, I'll contact you guys immediately. I am older than you, you know?"  
"Yes, and you also like to be independent and pretend that you never need help, even though asking for help from your family is normal" Donnie bit back.  
"Even if we're MEN" Raph added, speaking with the same amount of sass as his brother.  
"I get it" April replied in the same sassy manner, "I'm not a damsel but I'm also not as swift and strong as a mutant turtle. I think I can handle babysitting myself though, thank you very much" she said as she crossed her arms and an annoyed tilt of her head.  
All four brothers gave her a final smirk before turning to head out.  
"Wish us luck!"  
"Be back soon!"

The four brothers, along with Jay and J2, ran out the doorway and followed their usual pattern for exiting this new lair.  
Within a couple minutes they were leaving the sewers and standing on the grounds of the surface in an empty alley way.  
At the end of the alley was S2 groaning with her arms crossed.  
"What took so long?" she groaned.  
"Um, Sam?" J2 asked. "Where'd you get that truck?" he asked.  
Her annoyed expression quickly turned into a wicked grin.  
"Let's just say I know a guy who maybe has a thing for me and he happens to work for a company with cars that hide who's inside and when I told him I'd kiss him for his truk I knocked him out instead with a new self-defense technique I was taught" she said bobbing her shoulders up and down acting 'clueless.'  
"That's…kind of messed up" Raph said as his brows crinkled, a mixture of being impressed and disgusted displayed by his facial features.  
'Really?' she thought, and the expression to communicate so was etched on her face. "Do you want to save your friend or not?"

"Good point, so let's go" Donnie urged as he was the first to run onto the familiar mini bus that they had ridden when they first entered this new dimension.  
The rest of the group piled onto the bus, hoping the unconscious man in the corner stayed that way as J2 drove them to the park. Luckily there wasn't too much 9p.m. traffic stopping them. Once they reached their destination, the boys leapt out of the vehicle and dashed across the road and over the small concrete barrier onto the parks grounds.  
Donnie didn't want to make their presence known, so he followed the coordinates on his wrist watch so that only he could see them, rather than projecting them in midair for a 3-D view as he usually did.  
"Keep your eyes peeled" Donnie whispered, "if we walk North along this fence then we should be able to see where she's at."  
The boys nodded and within the next few seconds, Sam was spotted.  
"There" Mikey said frantically but without speaking too loudly.  
Through the fence was the playground, and then past that was a small walking trail that was lined with a small metal fence that only came up to the average humans waist. On a bench on the other side of this rail was Sam laying down.  
"Remember the drill" Leo cautioned. "Donnie, be careful."  
Donatello nodded before carefully checking his surroundings before jumping the fence.  
His brothers continuously checked their surroundings as they followed behind him, making sure to cover him while he was checking on Sam.  
Donnie gently touched Sam as he checked her vitals while trying not to rouse her in case she had been injected with who knows what to set her off and attack.  
He released a sigh of relief when her breathing was at a normal rate (that and the fact that she was breathing at all) as he carefully backed his arm away from her neck.

He went to reach for a small x-ray tool from his pack when suddenly Sam's eyes popped open, bearing their blue and black color.  
Donnie leapt backwards away from her and instantly held his arms in front of him in a cautionary way.  
The other three darted over, Raph facing backwards while Leo and Mikey were facing towards the other two in a means to quickly cover and protect Donnie.  
"Sam, it's okay, we're not going to hurt you. Mikey's even hear and knows your new password" Donnie stated.  
He and Mikey carefully moved to switch places as Mikey slowly put his hands up in the air and got down on his knees.  
Sam continued to breathe heavily, waiting to see and hear what she needed to in order to believe that she was truly safe and not being set up.  
Mikey breathed in, and released his breath while stating: "Hawaiian pizza."  
"Really, that's it?" Raph huffed.  
"Why is that the password?" Sam demanded.  
"Because Raph hates it and he's a huge dick" Mikey replied.  
Sam took a small step forward, although it was more like an awkward limp.  
"Ironic since he is…what he doesn't…have…" Sam mumbled as she stumbled forward and into her friends arms.  
"It's okay, I got you" Mikey repeated multiple times as the color faded from his friends eyes as she lie limp in his arms.  
"Donnie" he stated in a frightened tone, refraining from looking away from Sam in case she woke up and wasn't herself.  
Donatello knelt down and checked her pulse as he placed his fingertips along her neck. He carefully opened her left and then her right eye.  
"Her pupils aren't dilated which means she doesn't have a brain injury and currently isn't being affected by any drugs, but we don't know if that will change. Mikey, hold her tight but be careful since I don't have time to check for any other injuries."  
Mikey let out a shaky breath, but calmed as he felt his brother's hand touch his shoulder. He looked back up towards Donnie who was standing in front of him.  
"You've got this, and she knows that to" he said with a small smile.  
"What the hell's with that password man?" Raph grumbled, still facing away from the group as he scouted for enemies.  
"Pack on them about it later" Leo stated, "for now we just need to get Sam someplace safe."

The four nodded and dashed as silently as they could back towards the bus, making sure to be aware of their surroundings.  
Once they reached the bus, Donnie immediately began checking on Sam and running whatever tests he could while they were away from medical equipment in the lair.  
He scanned her body with his handheld x-ray device and concluded that not only were there no broken bones, but that she was also human. There was no metal or anything that concluded she was a robotic copy of the original. He also took a blood sample that he was able to check using a hand-held blood analyzer.  
Finally, once all these check-ups were complete, he leaned back and rested his head on the seat behind him.  
"So?" Leo asked eagerly.  
The rest of the boys, including Jay, had been kneeling on the floor of the bus and were holding Sam's body still so that she didn't bounce or slide around while Donnie was checking on her.

With a smile Donnie stated that "the blood test came out normal. Nothing out of the ordinary as of now."  
He sat back up and faced everyone in the group. "She's our Sam, not a copy or a fake. It's her" he said with a small laugh of relief.  
"Oh thank god" Jay said, covering his face with his hands to hide his emotions.

The group was rather silent the rest of the way back. It was mostly because none of them wanted to get emotional, but they all were just relieved to the point that they enjoyed this silence. Sam was back, and for now she was safe, and that's all that mattered.

**Hello, if you're still reading then thank you so much. Even when I'm not working life is just crazy busy -_- Like I feel like I should have 20 chapters uploaded and I'm now finally just uploading one. But it's finally here **

**Is everything as it seems? Tune in next time to find out!**

**Also fun facts! I'm graduating college in a few days and I just recently got engaged! Hope that you all are having a good holiday season!**


	7. Chapter 61

**Any references to TMNT or anything from popular media and culture is NOT MINE. I only own my OC's. Any references to "TMNT Out of the Shadows" DO NOT BELONG TO ME. Only my additions that I came up with myself belong to me. Anything from the films or other series ARE NOT MINE, only my OC's and my ideas that I have added onto the story FOR FUN. ****  
****Thank you. **

Chapter #61

***Tuesday May 24****th**** into Wednesday May 25****th**** 2016-just edging the brink of midnight***

"Take her to the med wing around the corner, you can check on her there" J2 instructed as the group entered the lair.  
"Is she alright?" April asked, rushing out from the side room where her alternate was still lying down silently.  
"She's fine" Leo answered.  
Mikey had carried her all the way down from the vehicle up above and through the tunnels down below and was now following Donnie into the med wing.  
Leo had been close behind them both in case they needed anything, but Leo knew that now he would just get in the way as Donnie set all the equipment up. Plus, they had J2 with them and he could aid in instructing Donnie how to get things set up (if Donnie even needed any help, that is).

"Where are the others?"  
"S2 is convincing the driver that she kissed him already and that it's not her fault he blacked out afterwards. I'll explain more about that later" he said as he rolled his eyes, making April laugh at his expression, "and Jay and Raph are standing nearby so that they can protect her and then help her make her way down here."  
"We were doing that" Raph cut in, "but we're here now."  
"Everyone alright?" April asked uneasily.  
"It's alright, you can relax. Donnie checked on her and everything he tested showed that she's really Sam and nothing serious has been detected so far" Jay reassured.  
"Oh thank goodness" the woman sighed in relief, leaning on Raph as she swayed to her side.  
"Whoa, mighty sigh there" Raph teased.  
"Well I've been on edge since you guys left! Everyone else gets to go make sure that she's okay and I'm stuck here all by myself."  
"April-"  
"No!" she shouted as she pointed at Leo. "Do not apologize! I love her to, but you all are much closer to her. Obviously you all wanted and needed to know what was going on with her. I'm fine!"  
The guys couldn't help but chuckle.

**Theme: NF-Can You Hold Me (for Mikey and Raph)**

While everyone else was catching up and checking in on each other, S2 went back to helping in the best way she currently knew how. She left the room and made her way towards the med wing. As she went to enter the room, she bumped into Donnie.  
"Sorry" she stated quickly.  
"At ease, it's alright" he teased. He looked back over his shoulder at his younger brother, then turned back towards the girl in front of him. "He could use the company."  
"Hmmm" S2 nodded with a small grin.  
After Donatello left the area, S2 slowly walked into the med wing.  
"Mind if I join you?" she asked softly, assuming Michelangelo wouldn't turn around unless completely necessary.  
"Yeah, it's cool" Mikey mumbled.  
"Did Donnie run anymore tests?" S2 said as she pulled up a chair and sat next to the mutant.  
Mikey nodded. "He ran a couple other blood tests and is going to sample them to make sure the mutagen in her blood hasn't changed or mutated, he's going to continue doing that in case something changes in the long-run. You know, planning for every possible outcome."  
"What about you?"  
Mikey paused. "What about me?"  
"Well Donnie's already set his mind on a mission, how are you holding up?"  
Mikey closed his eyes, tight.  
"I just don't know how much longer I can see her like this. Like, it's never us like this, EVER. And I mean I'm not saying I want this to happen to anyone but…but it needs to stop being her" he muttered his last words, clenching his fists while doing so.

"She's told me a lot about her battles with you guys, sounds like she's a tough one. I know I've only met Sam for a short amount of time, but I bet she'll bounce back, tougher than before" she said with encouragement.  
"But that's the thing" Mikey replied as he turned away from her, "I don't want her to be tougher."  
"What do you mean?" she asked solemnly.  
"If she tries to be tougher, then she'll want to fight more, and then she'll get hurt again. She's a tough fighter and the best partner in crime anyone could ever ask for, but she always gets hurt.  
If it's not Shredder turning her against us, then it's her helping defend us with her life, or her powers whacking out and putting her in danger, or someone using the mutagen in her veins to take control of her!" he said as he stood up so quickly that the chair behind him flipped backwards.  
"Mikey-"  
"It's always something!" he roared. "Like we all walk away scot free and yet she gets hurt or controlled or something! And there's nothing…there's nothing I can do to stop it…" his voice trailed from shouting to almost whispering.  
S2 sensed Leo and Donnie right outside the med wing, and while Mikey turned as he paced back and forth now, S2 held up a hand to signal to the boys to stay outside and that she had this.

"Maybe this time will be different" S2 said calmly.  
Mikey halted and stared at her. "What do you mean?"  
"She learns from these things, right?"  
"Well…um…" Mikey stuttered, trying to catch his breath.  
"She told me how she helped free you from…whose the brain guy?"  
"Kraang."  
"Him!" she said with a snap of her fingers. "You were trapped in his grasp, but Sam didn't lose control, right? She learned from her mistakes and stayed calm, and that allowed her to maintain control of her powers and help save you. So maybeeeeeee that means she'll calm down after she wakes up" S2 stated with a small smile.  
"You…you really think so?" Mikey asked with glassy eyes.  
"Well I'm sure when she sees you like that, she'll definitely re-consider her actions" she said with a light chuckle.  
"Can I hug you?" Mikey asked abruptly.  
S2 paused at first, caught off guard by the request.  
Mikey prayed that the girl couldn't sense his blush (Sam and April were the only two who could actually tell when the turtles blushed) as he began speaking sporadically.  
"Sorry, that was a weird thing to ask. Forget I said anything. I mean I don't even know you like th-"  
That fast S2 had lunged in and hugged the turtle.  
"You're hurting. Never apologize for that" she stated as she held him tightly.  
She scrunched her eyes shut once she felt his arms move, assuming he would crush her with his ridiculously large muscles, yet his touch was so gentle. She was shocked at how delicate he was, especially since his mannerisms were usually a bit rough since he was always so energetic and playful.  
'I wonder how many times he's held her like this in order to learn how to be so compassionate and gentle, or maybe this tenderness is just his extra super power' she thought to herself.  
She then realized that this feeling, this way of being held felt very familiar. The way she felt so safe and comfortable within his embrace even though Mikey was still someone relatively new to her life.  
That's when she realized, the way she was being held right now was the same way that Kris held her when they were alone. Was it just a coincidence and it meant nothing? Or…did it mean that Mikey felt a certain way about Sam?

"Thanks" Mikey stated in a low voice as he began to back away. "I just, I needed that. I'm used to Sam always being there whenever I'm feeling down. Not saying I need to hug you because you look like her, but uh…talking to you is similar to talking to her though" he said, rubbing his hand behind his head with a bashful smile.  
'I wonder…' S2 thought to herself, but she left it at that and just smiled genuinely at him, glad that she was able to help make him feel better.  
"How's Raph holding up?" Mikey asked, now displaying a more concerned expression on his face once again.  
"Oh, I actually haven't had a chance to talk to him yet. I went to check on the two of you earlier, but then the alarm went off and we went to go save Sam."  
"I would check on him soon. He may have seemed alright, but I know he's mentally freaking out. Be careful though. There's a good chance he's completing some rough and physical activity and he's probably being so freaking loud, he's always so damn loud" Mikey said as he rolled his eyes and shook his head side to side. "I mean, I'm all for channeling anger and stress into an activity, but I'll never understand why he must always be so violent and noisy when it comes to relaxing himself. I know I have no right to complain about being loud and having too much energy, but I'm nowhere near as insane as that guy" he joked.  
S2 laughed. "Everyone is different my friend. You like talking to people about your emotions, while some people like to punch things and make noise, or sit in quiet rooms, or busy themselves to exhaustion."  
"Ugh, tell me about it" he groaned.  
"I'll check up on you later" she stated as she placed a hand on his shoulder.  
"Thanks, I appreciate it" he said with a smile, one of the most genuine smiles she had seen from him in a while after all that had happened.  
"Of course" S2 replied before leaving the room.

She left the med wing and listened for sounds that seemed like someone was using exercise equipment. She followed the sounds as they guided her down a hallway and into an open room with a few different machines, including a punching bag.  
"What do you want?" he asked, his back turned to her as he continued to swing at the bag.  
S2 paused, taken aback by his words and the tone of his voice. He was definitely different from the rest of his brothers. The others had welcomed her in and talked to her, whereas his mannerisms made it clear that he didn't want to talk things out. At least, he wasn't ready to yet, so she had to approach him differently from the others. He was unique and different from them after all.  
"Just watching" she said with a shrug.  
Now it was Raph who was caught off guard. "Just watching?" he said in a low but rough tone as he turned around.  
"Yeah. I heard you're a tough guy, and my teacher is resting up right now. So I'm watching."  
Raph shot her a nasty sneer as he turned back around. "Alright" he grumbled.  
S2 walked over towards the wall and took a seat, leaning her back against it as she watched Raph bounce on his toes and continuously swing at the large bag in front of him.  
"So how long are you just gonna sit there and watch?" he grunted as he continued to lay into the bag.  
"Do I have a time limit?" S2 asked calmly.  
"Psh, not what I meant. Never mind" he grunted, not losing a step in his rhythm.  
S2 sat there with a puzzled look for a few seconds before she realized that he was asking, in his Raphael sort of way, if she wanted to join him.  
She walked over and stood behind him.  
After a few seconds, Raph acknowledged her presence and turned to face her.  
"Do you even know how to use this thing?"  
S2 took a step forward and angled her knuckles the way that her alternate taught her as she struck the bag a couple of times.  
Raph nodded. "Not bad, but still…" he paused, then turned away.  
S2 remained emotionless. She could sense what he was thinking, but she also had a feeling it was too soon to bring this to light.  
"So is punching the only thing you do when you're stressed?" she asked calmly.  
Again, Raph paused for a few seconds before answering the question.  
"No. There's a pull-up bar over there. And there are some hand weights over there. That and push up's and curl up's don't require any equipment, so…yeah."  
"Do you have a routine?"  
Raph looked down and scowled at the girl.  
"Didn't realize this was 20 questions" he said as he turned and walked back over towards the hand weights.  
"Didn't mean for it to be, just-"  
"Checking in right?" Raph asked intensely as he whipped around to face the girl. "Since you think you need to be like her, so you're checking in with each of us. Well, you're not her and-"  
"She's the one who she be in here with you, right?" S2 asked, continuing to remain as calm and collected as she could. Normally she would never allow someone to talk to her in such a nasty way, but she knew the person in front of her was hurting, and she needed to let him vent his rage out. At least he was staying verbal and not getting physically aggressive.

"Look, I know you'll get the wrong idea, but what I meant is-"  
"I get it" the girl cut in.  
"Really?" he asked in disbelief.  
S2 nodded. "She wouldn't have to ask you about routines, or what you do when you're angry. She already knows. If she was here then she would know exactly what to do and say to calm you down. She would probably join you in working out instead of needing you to invite her to join you" she replied with raised brows, exerting that she truly did understand how he felt, eventually.  
"Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against you. Just…" he trailed off as he turned away. "You have her face, her voice, sometimes you even act like her. But you're not her. Instead she's lying in a bed and Donnie is running tests to make sure it's even her and that's it not some monster faking and that she's actually still having who knows what being done to her" he said, his voice beginning to raise as he used his arms while he spoke.  
"I get it" S2 responded. "Your friend is hurt, of course you're going to want her here instead of me. But sadly I'm not like her, so I can't fix everything like she can. I'm not like her and I don't know any of you like she does. However, I'm not going to just sit back and do nothing. I'm not her, but I'm going to do what I know she would do" she replied with confidence.

Raph couldn't help but shake his head and smile. "You definitely have her attitude, that's for sure."  
"Look, if being here is only going to make you more upset, then I'll leave. But yes, I'm going to at least check in on you guys. I owe my alternate twin that much."  
Raph looked over at her and gave her a small grin. "Guess talking to you isn't so bad. It's not the same as talking to the original, but it's not bad. Heh, in a way it's like talking to the original when we first met."  
S2 titled her head to the side. "How so?"  
"Once she was allowed to enter the lair on a regular basis she ended up training with us. She had potential, but she also had A LOT to learn and wasn't anywhere near as strong as she is now when using her natural strength. Sorta like watching you hit that punching bag."  
S2's eyes went wide. "What?! I thought I hit that thing pretty well!"  
Now that got Raph to laugh.  
"Sweetheart, you have a lot to learn if you thought that was a good hit" he laughed as he shook his head.  
"Teach me!"  
"Whatever" Raph groaned, although his small smile hid that he was actually eager to teach the girl. Just like he had said minutes ago, this reminded him a lot of when Sam first began training with them. She had had practice fighting and knew how to throw a punch, but she still needed some pointers on her stance and how to throw the punch so that it did more damage to the enemy than it did to herself.  
Raph was beginning to grow more energetic and was smiling for a while as he taught the girl to fight and defend herself, but gradually his expressions became more and more joyless.  
The more he thought about his friend and the good times from the past, the more it made him dread that she was now lying in a hospital bed and that the person who was better at comforting him than anyone wasn't here and was suffering once again.

"Raph?" S2 asked cautiously.  
He didn't respond, he just continued to stare off into space.  
S2 was shocked. At this point he looked a lot like his youngest brother. Their saddened expressions were very similar, and they were very recognizable. S2 wasn't sure if her next move would make him feel better or not, but she sensed that it was needed and appropriate.  
Raph shuddered at the impact as the girl walked up to him and hugged him gently.  
He couldn't remember the last time that he had received a hug (from an adult that is) and was shocked that the girl was bold enough to do so. He also assumed that since he was so huge and usually quite intimidating that no one would ever hug him like this. He had participated in numerous group hugs from his brothers, or one arm around the shoulder hugs, typical things like that. But this was different. This was a more compassionate hug, one that sympathized with his feelings.  
At first he felt the urge to push her away (although this was also due to the fact that she was wearing a top that exposed her stomach and it felt weird that her stomach was technically touching his) but the longer she held onto him, the more he reveled in how gentle her touch was, how much calmer it made him feel to have someone hold him in such a caring way.

Without realizing it, he slowly wrapped his arms around her as well. He was grateful that she just stood there quietly rather than try to talk throughout the situation. It made him feel much more comfortable in the relaxed but still somewhat awkward position they were in.  
Usually he never reached this point since Sam always knew what to do to get him to calm down way before he reached this point of depression, but would she hold him like this if he ever needed it? He assumed the answer to be yes since he and Sam had hugged before, just never for this amount of time. It still felt odd to be in this position regardless of who it was he was hugging. He was sensitive, but he'd never considered himself to be a hugger. Regardless, he was grateful, more grateful than he ever thought he ever would be for the embrace. He even began to wonder how different he might be if he was held like this more often, but his thoughts were cut off by a shriek from another room.

"Was that April?" S2 asked uneasily.  
"Yeah, but which one?" Raph replied. "Come on" he stated before the two dashed out of the room.  
As they ran out of the doorway and down the hallway towards the main central space, Leo leaped down from an entry way on the floor above them. From a different entry way from the same floor, Donnie had also leapt down holding their April, and once her feet hit the floor then both began to run along with the others.  
As they exited the hallway they ran into both Jays who had been resting on the far side of the room, looking a bit frantic as if they had both just been awakened (it was after midnight after all).  
That left just one person: Mikey.

As the group ran into the large additional room on the ground floor which had been transformed into a relaxed space, they watched as Mikey slowly backed away from the couch with his hands held up.  
On the couch was the red-headed April, who was clinging onto a pillow for dear life as she stared at the turtle in front of her.  
She then turned and saw the other three gigantic turtles who were standing in the large rounded entry way into the room.  
"Oh my god there's more of you?!" she shrieked, scooting backwards so that her back was buried into the back of the couch.  
"It's okay, calm down" their April stated and she slowly made her way forward.  
"I just wanted to check on her I never meant-" Mikey stated hastily.  
"Hey, it's okay. We know" April said gently as she placed her hand on his shoulder, then continued to move forward until she was kneeling in front of her alternate who was still timidly burying herself into the back of the couch.

"Why do you look like me?" the red head asked in a scared tone.  
"Because in another dimension I am you. That's why the two Asian men behind me look exactly alike. They're not twins, they're the same person from alternate dimensions."  
"But…no one has ever discovered a way to do that" the alternate April stated with a confused look.  
"Or maybe they just never published their findings and kept the project silent and underground, literally" J2 said, rubbing the back of his head and looking down towards the ground.  
The alternate April hit the pillow she was holding.  
"Are you serious? Do you know how many people have dedicated years of their lives towards that research? You could have saved so many people so much time to work on other things if they knew about this!"  
"Well A2 seems fine now" Raph grumbled.  
The woman glared over at him. "I'm sorry, who looks calm now? And alternate dimensions doesn't explain what you giant green aliens are doing here" she replied in a rather nasty tone.  
"What is with women here being so damn bitter?" he bit back.  
"ME?!" A2 shouted back.  
"What my friend means" April cut in, sending a look over towards Raph aiming at him to calm down (which luckily his brothers were trying to get him to do now as well) "is that he's not used to people reacting that way towards him. It's been awhile since someone's acted that way after seeing him."  
"What, are you guys like Gods from, well wherever you're from?" she asked, her body no longer tense and now much more relaxed.  
"I like the sound of that" Mikey muttered with a smile.  
"We're not Gods" Leo stated, playfully nudging his baby brother, "but we have helped a lot of people. And our family has grown a bit within the past couple of years" he said with a small grin.  
"We've saved a lot of people from a dangerous group known as the Foot back from where we're from. Apparently our New York is much more dangerous than yours" Donnie added.  
"Is that why these people are here with you? And is that why all of you are here in general?" A2 asked, now much more curious about these new beings. She was a scientist after all, so now that she knew she was safe, she wanted to learn everything she could about them.

The four turtles nodded.  
"A few people from the Foot, the group my brother mentioned a second ago, escaped here. A ninja named Tatsu and a kunoichi named Karai traveled from our dimension to yours. We believe they came here so that they could retrieve whatever they needed as an energy source for their own portal back home. A specific portal that will aid an alien named Kraang. That alien is holding their leader, the Shredder, hostage. If they don't fix his own personal portal, then he won't release their leader to him" Leo informed the woman.  
"Wow…that's a lot to take in" she stated as she ran her hands through her hair.  
"Welcome to my world" April teased.  
"We think they're hunting down the Tanzanite that you talked about on television" Donnie continued. "We've secured it from the three OneLife Science buildings and we're currently trying to figure out our enemy's next move."  
"So now I know why you're here, and I know why all our buildings were evacuated, but who are these people?" A2 stated as she looked back towards April and the two Jays in the room.  
"Well, my name is April O'Neil and I'm a news reporter. My father also experimented with chemicals that ended up changing those four into what they are now. So now I'm their Hogosha" she said with a chuckle. "We all see each other as family. They're also training me to become a kunoichi so I can better defend myself whenever I get caught up in helping them save the day."

"Uh, my name's Jay. My sister and I are from the alternate New York. We came here in order to help our friends stop Karai and Tatsu from doing any harm and from succeeding in their mission to retrieve their leader."  
"My name is also Jay, and this is my family friend Sam. But you can call us J2 and S2 for now so that you don't get us mixed up with our alternates. We've been helping them the best we can."  
A2 nodded her head. "Ahh, so that's why the red one called me A2."  
"The red one has a name" Raph grunted.  
"Man you're so sensitive about that" Mikey teased.  
"Well what are your names?" A2 asked genuinely.  
Leo bowed. "Leonardo."  
"Raphael" Raph huffed as he crossed his arms.  
"Donatello" Donnie replied with a small smile.  
"And I'm Michelangelo, but ladies can call me Mikey" he said with a cheeky smile.

"Wow, that introduction was much smoother than when we first met" April teased.  
"Hey!" Mikey defended as his brothers laughed at the woman's comments. "I was a boy back then!"  
"It was two year ago! 15 to 17 isn't that great of a change!" April said with a laugh.  
A2 couldn't help but laugh along with the quirky bunch.  
"So, I know your names, and I sort of know about where you came from, but what EXACTLY are you?" she asked again.

The four brothers turned to her and smiled.  
"Well ma'am, we're ninjas" Leo stated.  
"We're mutants" Raph added.  
"We're also turtles" Donnie commented.  
"And as April stated, we're teenagers. But soon to be adults, that's why we can have adult conversations."  
"Hmmmm so you're ninja, mutant, turtle, teenagers?" A2 asked with an odd smile.

"See, now you went and made it sound lame" Sam stated as she rolled her eyes with her laid back-arms crossed look.  
Everyone froze and slowly pivoted their feet so that they were now facing her.  
She had been silently standing in the doorway, but no one was quite sure for how long.  
"Sam?" Leo asked softly.  
"Yeah?" she replied, nonchalantly waiting for a response.  
"You're-" Jay added with a smile.  
"You're awake" Raph and Donnie said simultaneously, cutting off their human friend.  
"Well it's hard to rest when you're all shrieking and talking so loudly-"  
In what seemed to become a trend now, Sam was cut off as Mikey had rushed over and quickly embraced his best friend.  
"Thank God" he whispered.  
Sam wanted to make a joke to cheer him up and to ease his worry, but she knew now wasn't the time for that. Instead, she silently clung onto him like her life depended on it.  
Before she could even reply, the rest of the brothers and Jay were rushing over and joined in on the massive group hug.  
J2 and S2 couldn't help but chuckle as they watched their new friends share such a loving moment together.

A2 leaned over towards April. "And who's that?" she whispered.  
"That's Sam from my dimension. And she's one of the most incredible people you will ever meet. You know, besides the gigantic teenage mutant ninja turtles over there."  
"Are they close?"  
"Yeah. Just like me, that girl and Jay are part of their family. Sadly Sam was captured by Kraang and as you can see, that took its toll on everyone."

"Oh!" Sam said, gently shimmying her body to get everyone to back up, that way they would focus on what she needed to say.  
"Guys, there's A LOT that I need to tell you. You might want to grab a seat. I have some interesting things to tell you about what happened since the last time we met. You're not going to believe everything I learned."

**FINALLY A NEW CHAPTER!  
I know it doesn't help when I say "don't worry I'll be back" and then it takes me a little over 2 months to finally update again, and with such little happening -_-  
I was going to have more added onto this chapter, but I reached (barely) my minimum of 10 pages-almost 5,000 words per chapter. I thought it would be better to update something for those who have been incredible and have followed me through this story regardless of how long it's been since it started. **

…**..I PUBLISHED THIS IN 2017?! Wow, it's been awhile. So to those who have been here the whole time, or even for anyone who just joined, here's the latest update!  
I'm 95% sure I know how I'm going to continue this arc until moving on to the next step of the series, so that's always good :) **

**Hopefully I update sooner than 2 months, but until next time!**

**P.S. BTS's NEW ALBUM IS FIRE AND I CANNOT WAIT TO SEE THEM LIVE!  
My fiancé is taking me to my first ever concert and as long as nothing drastic happens then we're going to see them live and I am so hyped it's not even funny!**


	8. Chapter 62

**Any references to TMNT or anything from popular media and culture is NOT MINE. I only own my OC's. Any references to "TMNT Out of the Shadows" DO NOT BELONG TO ME. Only my additions that I came up with myself belong to me. Anything from the films or other series ARE NOT MINE, only my OC's and my ideas that I have added onto the story FOR FUN. ****  
****Thank you. **

Chapter #62

***Wednesday May 25****th****, 2016. About one o'clock in the morning.*  
*Kraang's ship(?)***

Sam's eyes slowly began to open. She couldn't open them up right away since there were so many bright lights around her, that and she wasn't exactly resting in the most comfortable of positions.  
She tried to move her wrists. That's when she realized they were tied, no, chained by metal cuffs up and outwards, as if she was frozen in the middle of completing a set of jumping jacks, her body forming a giant X.  
It was difficult to pick her head up when she was in this position because it naturally wanted to hang down, but Sam knew this would hurt her neck if she continued to hang this way, so she slowly raised her head up as she looked around the strange room.

"It's about time you woke up" came a familiar aggressive and twisted tone of voice.  
Sam froze. Kraang got her. That portal that suddenly captured her…captured her…from where?  
Her eyes went wide as everything that had happened came flooding back to her.  
She had been fighting Karai when suddenly younger versions of Brian and Chuck suddenly appeared and began to fight her, but she also remembered Karai somehow changing them to look like Leo and Raph as well.  
How had she done it? Regardless, it led Sam to lose herself mentally which then caused her to lose the fight altogether as she plummeted to what she thought would be her death.  
It was unknown just exactly where they were, but she assumed he had taken her back to the Technodrome, wherever it was now located since he had failed at making Earth his new home spot.  
"Silent. I'm shocked" he mocked.  
Sam turned with an expressionless look to see just what exactly it was that he was doing.  
Kraang was using his robotic arms to type something (Sam had no idea what language was being used as he typed) on a giant computer.  
As Sam continued to observe her surroundings, she realized that she was actually in the center area of the Technodrome.  
"Didn't we fight here?" she mumbled.  
Kraang paused. "Heh, observant as always." He turned around and walked over towards the girl. "Yes, this setting is where you and your pesky friends fought against me almost a year ago. However, that was a different ship. But I did move many of its components to this ship in the meantime."  
"Ugh, there's more than one? Spoiled much?"  
"Excuse me?" he grumbled.  
"Well I'm sure there's evil aliens out there who only received one ridiculously huge ship for their birthday. I mean now you're just bragging" Sam mocked.  
"Grrrrr life is just a joke to you isn't it?" Kraang snarled.  
"Well, it's better to laugh when you're thrown into situations like this" she said, signaling to the metal cuffs around her wrists and ankles.  
"Do you know why you're here Samantha?" Kraang asked with a wicked smile.  
"I guess it's not for tea during gossip hour?"  
"No."  
"To eat some make-up?"  
"What?" he growled.  
"You know, since you're butt ugly on the outside, maybe you were trying to look pretty on the inside."  
"Ugh, what is wrong with you?!" Kraang bellowed.  
Sam shrugged. "You want a list?"  
"I want you to shut up and listen!"  
"You're the one who asked me a question" Sam stated, her eyes scrunched in confusion.  
"Ahhhhhhh fine! You're here-"  
"To be tortured?"  
"STOP INTERRUPTING ME! Or else that will be the case!"

Sam was actually surprised to hear that. She remained silent, now curious as to why she had been captured just to not be physically or mentally tortured in some way.  
"How much do you care about the turtles?" Kraang asked in a snide way.  
"They're alright" Sam answered in a monotone voice.  
"Oh cut the crap! You love them!"  
"You don't know what I love" she replied as she rolled her eyes.  
"Cut the teenage girl act!"  
"Cut the old fart act!"  
"YOU'RE HERE SO I CAN HURT THEM!" Kraang shouted, his tentacle arms flying everywhere in his rage.  
"Wh…what?" Sam asked.  
"Heh, that got your attention" Kraang huffed. "I've learned over my time observing you all that you and those turtles are very close. It seems each of them has a personal connection to you in one way or another. So I realized something. Why fight them, when I can just use you?"  
"What does that mean?" Sam asked, the first time she actually sounded serious since she had awoken.  
"Fighting them is too difficult, unfortunately I found that out the hard way. But after my defeat, I remembered how you seemed as if you were about to lose control of your powers when I was trying to crush the orange one" Kraang stated, his voice growing more and more furious as he spoke.  
"That's when the blue one called out to you, and somehow you seemed to calm down. You had even gained better control of your powers than I could have ever imagined. The mutagen in your veins is an extremely rare concoction, and you're the first person it has ever paired with, so the fact that you were able to prevent me from moving my own machine-based body was truly outstanding. But it wasn't just you and your powers that allowed you to do that, it was also your connection to those four annoying brothers. So that's when I decided, I needed to separate you in a way that would bring them harm."

"So you captured me to upset them…but you're not going to torture me?" Sam asked curiously.  
"See, that's the thing Samantha, I have numerous tricks up my sleeve that you all will never see coming" the alien stated in devious glee, "including the way that I got you here in the first place."  
Sam puckered her lips together, trying her best to remain calm as she now remembered her brothers.  
"So how'd you do it? Since you're so damn fancy" Sam teased.  
"I allowed Karai to use some toys of mine." He slapped the back of the robots head so that holograms were now being displayed by lasers projecting from its eyes. "The first thing I gave her was the laser dimension blade. It looks similar to what you might call a light saber from the Star Wars series. I know that's a popular movie franchise from your planet, so I'm sure you're familiar with it."  
"Wait, so you're telling me you have a light saber that creates portals?"  
"It's not literally a light saber you fool, it just looks like one."  
"So she didn't use the force to open a portal?"  
"NO! Just-ugh! It allows the user to create a portal, but it is a rather small one. That's why I rarely use it since I can't get this gigantic body through it. The user can open the portal, but you must know where you want to go or else it will send you to a random location, even outer space is a possibility of where it could send you if you don't have a specific place in mind."  
"But, how does it know what you're thinking?"  
"There are sensors on the handle. They connect to the nerves in your fingers so that your brain can actually connect with the device as an alternative to needing to wear any head gear. "

"So, you're still my enemy and all…but that actually sounds really cool" Sam admitted.  
"But that doesn't explain why I was fighting my brothers" she stated in a slightly more forceful tone.  
"Ahhhh THAT was because I also gave Karai the turnstone." An image then appeared of a small blue and white orb that would fit in someone's hand. "This gem allows the user to think of anything that already exists. It will then appear before the beholder and anyone else around them. As long as it's nothing imaginary and it's something the user has actually seen, then that image will appear. It connects to the users mind in the same way that the laser dimension blade does."  
For the first time since she had waken up, Sam was silent.  
"So that's why they looked so young, because in my dimension no one had ever seen them age since they had passed away at such young ages."  
"Yes, it was a clever trick. I assumed that she was going to trick you into thinking that the turtles were going to turn against you by attacking you out of nowhere, but she pulled the dead sibling card instead. She is clever, very clever. There could be more use to keeping her around then I thought. She may be even more useful than Shredder ever was" he cackled.  
"What's wrong with you?" Sam asked bluntly.  
"Me? But Samantha, it's YOU that keeps jumping into dangerous situations without thinking. So I don't quite know what you mean by asking me what is wrong with me" he said, belittling her.

Sam paused for a moment. She needed to choose her words wisely since it seemed more and more likely that Kraang was now up to something as the aura of the conversation changed.  
"At least when I rush into things it's because I want to protect the people I care about. You just enjoy bringing harm to people."  
"Heh" Kraang scoffed, "I have no need to protect people. No one ever protected me, so why should I care about others? Other beings are cruel and do nothing but turn against you so there's no need to help or protect them. If they can't defend themselves even against mental abuse then they don't deserve to live on" he said.  
A shiver ran down Sam's spine. The way he spoke, the drastic change in his look, it made him seem bloodthirsty as if all he wanted was world domination and destruction.  
"What happened to you?" Sam asked softly.  
He turned towards her with an alarming look, his eyes widened to the point they looked as if they were about to pop out of his head.  
He stormed over towards her and shoved a robotic finger at her face.  
"THAT is a story for another day! You don't need to know about that for now!" he shouted.  
"Okay, okay" she said rapidly as she leaned as far back as she could in the position she was in, trying to back away from the finger being shoved at her. "So then why even bring me here if it's not for an epic reveal?"

"Weren't you listening earlier? I said I brought you here so that I could hurt the turtles!"  
"Ahhh right, you brought me here just to do nothing to me, right" she said with a nod.  
"See, the thing is Samantha, I said I wouldn't hurt or torture you. I never said you would walk away without anything happening to you" he smirked.  
'I knew it' Sam thought with a gulp.  
Suddenly on the far side of the room a gigantic portal opened. Sam looked over as Kraang grew a wicked smile on his face and walked over towards what seemed like two rock like creatures standing in the entry. There seemed to be a control pad outside the portal where the two beings were standing. Sam wondered if there were secret portal locations set up on whatever planet they had come from that had allowed them to instantly open a portal that lead them to the ship.

"Ahh General Traag, Granitor, welcome back. Good news I assume?"  
"Kraang sir, we've been testing the mutagen on the species of amphibian men. So far it hasn't tested well and is just resulting in casualties. However, we have been studying their physique and believe that with the right amount of training that we could use them as soldiers against their own species, maybe even against others" the shorter creature spoke.  
This creature seemed to be built of a red-brown colored stone. In fact, his entire body was made of stone. He was shorter than his companion but was rather huge. He wore army green pants and a helmet of the same color, and the gun he was holding was larger than that of his companion. Sam assumed this was General Traag.  
"I'll take it" Kraang groaned. "As long as we still have control over them then I want you to continue our trials. If it continues to do nothing but kill them off then stop once there's only about 20 of them left. Make sure to keep a few of both gender and of different age groups and builds so we can further study them after we capture them" Kraang instructed. "Granitor, have your men located any new species worth our time?"

The taller gray colored being nodded.  
"Yes and no sir. We've identified a planet far out past the ends of the solar system. We're not sure just yet if there are any inhabitants, but we plan to further examine the planet."  
This being was quite tall and wore navy blue boots and a matching colored helmet. He carried a smaller gun that seemed for his size to be that of an extra-large handgun.  
Kraang nodded towards the taller gray-stoned being.  
"Is your team already there?"  
"They are sir. They just recently sent me a message saying that we don't need any special breathing equipment, so they are setting up the portal posts as we speak with your aides."  
"Excellent. Join them and report your findings back to me within the next couple of minutes."  
"Yessir" Granitor nodded before walking over towards the large portal device against the wall.  
Sam pretended to look down towards her feet as she secretly glanced up towards the computer screen as Granitor typed on the portals keyboard.  
He used the letters and keys buttons to type in symbols that resembled the letters and numbers B2AXX, then he turned small black dial all the way to the right until it wouldn't turn anymore, then pushed a small green button right under the dial, and then finally pressed a large red button. Sparks flew from the two posts before they shot out a giant puff of smoke. A few seconds after the smoke cleared, a portal appeared that allowed the people on both sides to see into the other side of the portal.

Once Granitor walked over towards the other side, he pushed some buttons that Sam could not see while he was on the other side of the portal before walking away to join others who looked just like him.  
"Ugh, he always forgets to turn both sides off. I can still see him" Kraang huffed as he walked over and pressed some buttons so that now the two-way passageway vanished.  
"Orders sir?" General Traag asked.  
"Report any specifics of your report to my men downstairs. See if they have any additional requests for when you go back to test on the amphibians."  
"As you wish" the general said with a slight bow before exiting the room.  
"Where were we?" Kraang asked with a mischievous smile.  
"You find me boring so you're letting me go" Sam said with a straight face.  
"Heh, not yet. First, you need this." As Kraang spoke, a needle had been sent into the room from an electronic lift located on the far side of the room. He opened the small door and removed the needle that contained some type of gray murky colored liquid.  
"What's that?" Sam asked with a voice that matched her poker face.  
"This Samantha is what will bring harm and devastation to your precious turtles" he said with a wicked smile.  
"…okay…so what is it?" Sam asked, learning forward as if egging him on to continue.  
"Ha! You think I would tell you?" he cackled. "Now where's the fun in that?"  
Sam's fight or flight instincts kicked in as her eyes went black and blue. She forcefully yanked her wrists towards her chest so that she could break the chains, but the chains were wrapped tightly around her wrists and by the time she finally got them to snap Kraang had already stormed over and injected the needle into her neck.  
At that moment she regretted not being more in control of her powers. There had been moments where she could stand still and somehow throw large gusts forward or move air without actually aiming her hands towards where she wanted the air to move (like when she helped pull Kraang's hands apart so that he couldn't crush Mikey when they fought about a year ago) but she needed seconds of concentration in order to do things like that, and in this situation she didn't have that type of time, hence focusing on breaking the chains which ultimately failed.

With the chains broken, Sam fell to the floor in an awkward position since her ankles were still chained up.  
She felt a painful tingling sensation pulsing throughout her body and within seconds her arms and hands were shaking uncontrollably.  
"What did you do?" she snarled.  
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Kraang scoffed as he kicked her to the side.  
Sam violently coughed as she grabbed onto the left side of her body where she had landed. Normally this wouldn't have been too bad (she had received much more painful beatings) but this tingling made everything hurt and feel sore to tremendous levels.  
Suddenly the portal opened once again as Granitor entered the room once more.  
"Master Kraang, we believe that this planet is a waste of time. At most there are some new plants we could collect and study to see if their elements could be mixed with our mutagens, but there are no living and breathing organisms."  
Kraang shrugged. "Collect what you can and ditch the place. Find me a new location that's worth my time."  
"Of course sir." Granitor then peeked over and was confused as he observed the girl lying in pain.  
"Sir, the captive is lying on the floor out of her arm restraints."  
"Leave her. She'll pass out soon enough. I just gave her the new concoction my team created just for her. We'll be sending her home very soon. For now just go downstairs and join General Traag in your report of the amphibians."

That was the last thing Sam heard as her hearing began to fade away. The last thing she remembered was Kraang walking over and kneeling down in front of her as he scooped her up in one hand before tossing her onto a medical bed. She thought, as she fought to remain awake and read his lips, that he said 'time for tests to make sure everything worked out' but she had no idea what that meant, if that's even what he said. Sam then lost her sense of sight as everything transitioned from a fuzzy blur to nothing, and she didn't wake back up until she sensed movement and leaped up from her spot, only to see the turtles in front of her. She stayed on alert in case this was a trick that Kraang had set up, but calmed down once Mikey stated their safety password. She didn't regain conscious until a few hours later after she had been returned to the lair.

***Back to Wednesday May 25****th****, now about 6 in the afternoon/evning in the lair* **

Sam and S2 were holding a long awaited training session. Sam was impressed with how quickly her alternate was picking up on the skills that she had taught her, well, somewhat. She knew that she had learned rather quickly herself, so it only made sense that her alternate picked things up just as quickly.  
S2 planted her left foot down, only allowing it to move with a slight pivot as she swung her right leg up towards Sam's head.  
"Ah, nice! But remember what I taught you" Sam stated as she grasped the girls ankle, "you have to be much swifter in an actual battle or else the enemy can easily do this" Sam said as she gently bent her arm and touched her elbow to the girls shin.  
S2 nodded. "Understood."  
That fast she pulled her leg back and spun around, throwing a punch towards Sam's right cheek as the two faced each other.  
Sam countered this attack as she slipped her head under the girls arm, swinging her own arm over and pushing her alternates head downwards so that she was forced to face the ground, the grip on her neck preventing her from moving any further.  
"Ugh, you're too damn fast" S2 grumbled.  
"I thought the same of those who trained me until months later I was able to match their pace" Sam replied with a smirk.  
She released her grip as they both slowly rose and stood up straight again.  
"Break time?" Sam asked.  
"Yes please" S2 huffed with wide eyes and she stretched her arms behind her head.

Just then Mikey and Raph had entered the far side of the room. They were passing by as they headed towards a workout room of their own since both of them were growing impatient of the process of watching and searching through scanners and cameras feeds and what not in order to track down Karai and Tatsu.  
"Wow, done already?" Raph scoffed.  
"You must hear that a lot" Sam said quickly before drinking from her water bottle.  
"I'm better than you'd think" Raph teased with a grin.  
"In bed? Oh I know, your lazy ass could sleep all day long."  
"Wow this is so fun" Mikey said with the fakest smile ever.  
"Is this normal?" S2 asked.  
"Unfortunately yes!" Mikey announced. "Well, later ladies. Keep up the hard work, you're doing fantastic" Mikey stated with a flirty smile and pointing at them as he simultaneously continued to push his brother out of the room.

Sam couldn't help but laugh once they left.  
"Did you see red's face? He was so annoyed by that last comment. Ahhh men get so upset when you make fun of their ability to 'perform'" she said, using her fingers to make air quotes.  
"You…you're something" S2 said with a smile as she shook her head.  
Sam let out a long sigh.  
"How were they? All four of them?" she asked nervously.  
S2 pursed her lips as she looked down at her feet. "They were all pretty shaken up. Leo and Donnie were at least able to remain calm. Raph was a bit bitter but he was within reason. Mikey, well, it was the first time I've ever really heard him shout. And not in a playful way."  
She peeked up and was shocked to see the look of dismay displayed on her alternates face.  
"I messed up big time. This may have been the worst thing I've done to them yet…or maybe it's equally as bad as some of the others things I've done" she said shyly as she crossed her arms and sat down on the floor, pulling her knees up to her chest.  
S2 walked over and sat across from Sam.  
"What's on your mind?"  
Sam now sat criss cross with her hands in her lap. She looked down at her hands while she spoke.  
"It's just, I know I've hurt them so much. I hurt them when they thought I worked for the Foot, then when I died, then when they thought I died when they found me in the river after getting chased down be Bebop and Rocksteady, I had to fight against them when Kraang had control of me, they saw me get attacked by a group of guys on my college campus, and now they've once again experienced a situation where they didn't know if I was dead or not. I just…I keep putting them through Hell."  
Sam looked up towards her alternate to see her displaying a small grin.  
"So what are you going to do about it?" she asked gently.  
"I guess you have an idea" Sam said with a playful but agitated tone.  
"I was talking to the guys when you were gone. It was clear that each of them was worried about you, but Mikey's words stood out the most."  
Sam waved for the girl to 'go on' and continue talking.  
"He told me how he didn't want you to come back tougher from all this because then you'll just want to fight more and more, leading you towards more chances of putting yourself in danger. He made it clear that he's not sure how many more times he can see things like this happen to you. Now before you get all mad-"  
"I know" Sam mumbled, interrupting her friend. "You don't have to rant on and on about how he's right and how fighting against this won't solve anything. I already know that. Can you keep a secret?" she said faintly.  
"Always."  
Sam sighed. "My powers are gone."  
Sam couldn't help but give a light chuckle at S2's jaw dropped reaction.  
"What? But how?!"  
"Shhhh keep your voice down. Secret, remember?" Sam stated with wide eyes, waving her hand for her friend to lower her voice.  
"But the way you were fighting me just now, how could you do that without your powers?"  
Sam looked confused.  
"My powers aided my strength, but the way I was fighting now is all on me honey. I learned a lot about self-defense and martial arts before I gained my powers. My powers did, however, give me the ability to use gusts of wind as a tool and as a weapon, that's how I was able to fly around like Iron Man and stuff."  
A disheartened look appeared on her face.  
"But now they're gone. I can just sense it. I've tried to practice some basic moves and nothing works. I'm useless. But, maybe I deserve this."  
"Sam-"  
"I've done enough harm to my brothers, so maybe this is what I get for being so reckless and stupid and-"  
"STOP" S2 demanded.  
Sam froze in shock at the way she was spoken to.  
"Sam, the reason those four were so worried about you is because you're such a loving and incredible person. They have so many memories created from the past two years they've spent with you. They all had nothing but good things to say about you, so how do you think your brothers would feel to know that you're talking about yourself like this?" she stated in a quick paced and stern tone.  
Sam sat there silently, knowing the girl was right but not wanting to admit it.  
"I know they care about me, and because of that they're going to bench me every time they have a mission."  
"And what's so wrong with that?" S2 bit back. "What's so wrong with not putting yourself in danger for once?"  
"Because fighting with them is everything to me" Sam whispered. She looked back up at her friend and faced her as she spoke. "I know they care about my safety, but I'm not a damsel who sits on the sidelines and waits to know that her loved ones are okay. That's not me and it never has been. I stand with them, not behind them. What if they need help and I can do something-"  
"But you're hurting them by standing with them."

Sam froze. She wanted to yell at her alternate for being so blunt, but she couldn't because she knew she was right. She was absolutely correct. How many times now had she gone out with the guys to help them with their missions, just for her to be the one that got the worst beating? It was usually she who faced the worst outcomes and put her friends or herself at a greater risk compared to if she hadn't gone on the mission at all. Had she even been that great of a help? She thought back to her past missions and past battles with the turtles and began to question how helpful she had ever really been.  
"Sam, listen" S2 stated gently. "You know how there are people in the military and they have to leave their spouses at home every day? Wanna know what makes those spouses so strong, just like those in the military?"  
Sam's response was to stare and blink with glassy eyes at the girl in front of her, which S2 took as a yes.  
"They're strong because even though the worst case scenarios are always playing out in their heads, they fight it. They don't let those thoughts consume them and they prepare for when their loved ones return home. They distract their minds and hide how scared they really are. Now it's your turn to do the same. Find something to distract your mind and let them focus on the mission while knowing you're safe and sound someplace else. Do you think you're strong enough to do that? Do you think you can be strong in a different way than what you're used to?"

Before Sam could answer, Donatello entered the room.  
"Sorry to interrupt, but Sam I need you for a few minutes."  
She nodded, stood up, and followed him into one of the smaller rooms (man this place was filled with extra rooms all over the place).  
"I've been analyzing the blood samples from when you got back earlier and I've begun to notice some changes from past samples I've taken back home. It may be hard for you to hear this but-"  
"They're gone."  
Donnie froze, his brows rose at the unexpected interruption.  
"I already know. I've been able to sense it for a while now. I tried some simple stuff and couldn't do it" Sam replied, refusing to face her friend.  
"You okay?" he asked softly.  
Sam nodded without saying a word.  
"Do you want to tell them, or me?" he asked.  
That got her attention as her head shot back up, worried features covering her face.  
"Donnie-"  
"Sam I care about you too much to hide this from everyone" he said, suddenly changing to a much stricter tone.  
"Do we have to tell them now?"  
"Does the timing matter?"  
"You know everyone in that room is going to have something to say about it, I don't want to deal with that now. I'm already trying to wrap my head around how much things are going to change now" she stated glumly.  
Donatello was quite confused with what his friend was getting at.  
"Wait, what do you mean that things are going to ch-"  
"DONNAY!" Leo shouted, his voice echoing down the hallway towards their room.  
The two deadpanned and faced the direction from where the call was made.  
"WE THINK WE GOT SOMETHING!"  
Donnie turned towards Sam before exiting this room.  
"I'll keep this between us for now, but this isn't staying a secret forever. And that's for your safety whether you like it or not."  
"Understood" she replied in a low tone as she followed him down the hallway and into the larger room that was filled with all types of computer and scanners among other types of technology.  
At this time everyone had congregated into the same room to receive the updates.

"What did you find?" Donatello asked.  
Leo faced the screen, pointing at different parts as he talked.  
"The police scanner finally went off. The officers were talking about an alarm going off at a place called the Chem-Performance building."  
"What's that?" Raph questioned.  
J2 stepped in to answer. "It's a place where all tested matters and materials are stored, like a safe place before and after testing occurs rather than just letting it sit at the testing centers for weeks and weeks. It's supposed to be heavily guarded, but it seems your 'friends' got in without breaking a sweat."  
"Wait, so why weren't we focused on this place the entire time?" Mikey asked.  
"Because the gems we were after before were in the process of being tested, so they was no need to come here yet. This place could be filled with unique materials with incredible capabilities, but if it wasn't something that could help with the portal then it wasn't worth breaking into. But now Karai and Tatsu could be so desperate that they'll take whatever they can get."  
"So where are they?" Raph cut in.  
"There" April stated as she pointed towards a hallway in the corner of the screen. "They set off a smoke bomb and hid in whatever room is on the other side of that door. From what we've seen they've yet to leave that room. We keep checking surveillance from other rooms as well, but they haven't been spotted yet."

"So what do we do?" Mikey asked.  
Leo paused. He was ready to start assigning roles and giving orders, but he knew Sam would want a crucial role. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he knew Donnie had just spoken to Sam privately, and he knew that his brother would have already made it clear that Sam was ready for battle if that were the truth. That and the fact that Sam wasn't exclaiming anything and was actually silent for once also signaled to him that something wasn't right.  
"It's about 6:30 now. At 7 on the dot Raph, Donnie, Mikey and I will travel underground towards that building. Donnie, you talk to J2 and A2 about determining the quickest way to get us there without being detected while also finding a way to eliminate any alarms or cameras that will get us caught. Mikey, Raph, and April I need you guys to help me in continuing to analyze this footage and see is Karai and Tatsu do anything within the next half hour to chance our plans.  
Sam I really need you-"  
"To come with me" S2 cut in.  
Everyone completed the same motion of scrunching their faces and turning towards the girl who made the sudden outburst.  
"Um, why?" Leo gently questioned.  
"Because I'm supposed to be meeting my family later, and I think Sam should go in my place."  
"WAIT WE CAN DO THAT?!" Sam bellowed, rapidly turning her head towards Donnie and Jay since neither had stated whether or not this could drastically affect things.  
While Sam was acting whacko, S2 shot Leo a glance, slowly nodding her head to signal that it would be wise to agree with her.  
"Would…that work?" Leo asked, turning towards his intelligent brother.  
"I mean, this isn't time travel. As long as Sam looks and plays the part then it shouldn't harm anyone" Donnie said with a shrug.  
"I'll go to, that way she's not alone. Is that cool?" Jay asked as he turned towards his alternate.  
"Fine by me. We should probably get you both to our place soon so that we can make sure you look more like us. Just a few things to adjust, you know?"  
"I've been to this building before so I can help with determining a route and with getting in" A2 added.  
"And I've snuck into enough buildings at this point that I can probably help her" she said with a grin, fist bumping her read-headed alternate who was smiling back at her.  
"Then I guess we all know what we need to do then" Leo proclaimed.

J2 walked over and whispered to S2 "what are you talking about? We didn't have anything planned for tonight."  
The girl looked up at him and smiled. "I'll explain as we go, but let's just say my alternate is in a bit of a sticky situation and could benefit from a distraction like this. When everyone first started talking I sent out a mass text about a game night and everyone is in" she said with a gleeful smile.

Just like how these two were talking, Leo quickly pulled all four of his brothers aside (luckily Jay and Sam were discussing some things by themselves closer towards the entry way).  
"Okay something is up with Sam and we need to know. There's no way she would gladly deny a chance to fight against Kraang, even if it was to see her family. She would want to see them afterwards when everything was safe."  
"Plus it was clear from J2 that this was a very sudden change to his schedule which means this family event wasn't planned" Raph added.  
"What's going on?" Mikey asked nervously.  
Donnie sighed, squeezing his eyes shut since he didn't want to hurt Sam, but he also didn't want to scare his brothers.  
"Look, I can't tell you everything because it's not my place to do so. However, I will say this…the mutagen within Sam, it's changing-"  
"Changing!?"  
Raph and Leo both swung arms around their baby brother's head, covering his mouth in order to get him to shut up.  
Donnie peeked over and saw that Sam was no longer in the room, in fact, they were the only four still in the room at all.  
"It's not harming her don't worry!" Donnie stated in a panicked whisper. "But it's not my place to go into detail. It's probably why S2 made the sudden suggestion. This keeps Sam out of danger while we take care of Kraang. Sam's not hurt, she's not dying, but going into battle to fight isn't safe for her now either. Got it?"  
All three brothers nodded.

They were happy to know that for once Sam wouldn't be in harm's way, and they were grateful that she wasn't fighting this. In the past Sam would have gone crazy and done everything she could to argue with them as to why she should be allowed to join them in battle, so it was nice for her to take the high road and go along with the choice that would keep her the safest. It would definitely be weird not to have her along with them, but they all knew that this would be for the best.  
"Heyyyyy guys" Sam said awkwardly as she re-entered the room.  
The four brothers turned around to face her.  
"What's up?" Leo asked.  
"I just…wait, I can tell by your faces you know something." She paused before sending a glare towards Donnie.  
"I told them the mutagen was changing. After what just happened they deserved to at least know that, but I didn't tell them how it changed."  
"Mmm" Sam nodded. "I guess it's only fair now. Uh, the mutagen in my veins, it's gone."  
"Gone? Forever?" Mikey asked in shock.  
"It's fine" Sam blurted towards Raph who had just raised his hand to smack the back of his baby brother's head for asking such a dumb question. "I'm in shock to. I wasn't going to say anything because I didn't need a lecture, but its fine now. I'm going to stay strong and I'm going to tackle a different battle of its own. But I still wanted to wish you guys luck before you left. Usually I'm always with you during this type of stuff, so it's going to be hard not knowing what's going on…" her voice began to trail off.  
She looked back up when she felt a hand on her shoulder.  
"I know it's not easy" Leo began, "but this is a smart and safe choice. We're proud of you for being the one to make it" he said with a smile.  
"Besides," Mikey added, "it's not like you'll never fight with us again. I mean you and I used to sneak out together way before you had powers, remember?"  
Sam couldn't help but chuckle at that. For a second she caught a glimpse of the days when the two had just become friends and they would sneak around and stop bad guys together behind the others backs.  
"Thanks guys, and be safe. Okay?"  
"Funny hearing you say it" Raph teased.  
"We'll see you later, safe and sound" Donnie stated with a smile.

And with that, each of the five went back and joined who they were supposed to be working with in order to begin the next phase in their plan.

**Hello. I'm finally back with another chapter. This chapter is a little longer than I intended which hopefully somewhat makes up for me not updating in so long.  
But I hope you're still enjoying the twists and turns of this series, and the introduction to some oldie but goodie faces of characters from the 80's :) **

**I know a lot is going on in the world right now. Please make sure you're staying inside as much as you can and are doing the best you can to stay safe! I still can't believe all that's happening :(  
I was supposed to begin a teaching job which sadly never started and I haven't seen my fiancé in weeks. Don't worry, I'm not complaining, just sharing how this is affecting my personal world during all this.  
I know there are people who are facing much worse circumstances, so please everyone do your part in helping to stop this, even if it's something as simple as staying home and quarantining.  
I wish you all good health and hope to see you soon in chapter 63 3  
Stay safe everyone!**


	9. Chapter 63

**Any references to TMNT or anything from popular media and culture is NOT MINE. I only own my OC's. Any references to "TMNT Out of the Shadows" DO NOT BELONG TO ME. Only my additions that I came up with myself belong to me. Anything from the films or other series ARE NOT MINE, only my OC's and my ideas that I have added onto the story FOR FUN. ****  
****Thank you. **

Chapter #63

***Wednesday May 25****th****, 2016. About 6:45p.m.* **

"Okay there's no freaking way! NO!" Sam bellowed.  
"Shhh! Lower your voice! If anyone shows up early then they're going to coming running back here if they hear what they think is me shouting like that" S2 bit back.  
The two Sam's, along with their two Jay's, had returned to the alternates apartment where they would be meeting up with the rest of their alternate family. At the current moment they were making sure that Jay and Sam fit the parts of who they were in this dimension. Jay's changes were very minimal and were more so based on accessories and hair product that he needed to wear and use since that's what Brenda had bought for him. Sam on the other hand was struggling to dress and look like her alternate self.  
"I'm not wearing a dress and that's final" Sam pouted as she flopped down on the bed.  
"How do you expect to ever get a boyfriend when you act like a child?" S2 said with a shake of her head as he continued to look through her never-ending wardrobe.  
"Ughhhh I already told you that I'm not looking for a boyfriend. And even if I was I wouldn't want him if he couldn't handle the package that is known as me."  
"Fair enough, but if you want to make a first move on a clueless guy, when the time comes!" she proclaimed before Sam could argue with her, "then you should pay attention to the clothes that I own. Trust me when I say they aid in getting men's attention" she said with a bite of her lip.  
"You disgust me" Sam muttered, her face buried into the sheets.  
"How about this?" S2 asked as she held up a long sleeved puffy sweater along with a white skirt.  
"Skirts are as bad as dresses!" Sam shouted.  
"Okay…how about this?" S2 asked, again, this time holding up a long sleeve gray cardigan, a pair of skinny jeans, and a white crop-top cami.  
"That would show off my stomach, that's a major nope!" Sam said, making an X with her arms.  
"Oh come on! It's either wear a dress and keep your belly covered, or wear a crop top with long pants. There's nothing else that I own outside of those options."  
"Let me take a look."  
Sam swung her legs around and jumped off the bed. She walked over towards the closet, moved some shirts around and finally made an official decision of what she would wear.

Her final outfit included a red zip-up jacket, green t-shirt crop-top, black leggings, and black with white striped air foam shoes (all Adidas brand of course).  
"Guess I figured out your favorite brand" S2 teased. "Alright so Kris apparently is coming, so just be cool okay?"  
"You said-" Sam began with wide eyes.  
"I know, I know. But he and Chuck are really good friends so he invited him even though I said it was family only."  
Sam paused. "Kris and Chuck are really good friends?"  
"Ha!" S2 burst out. "They're practically attached at the hip. Once I told Chuck that Kris and I were official he went crazy and was all 'well I need to make sure he's right for you' even though Kris and I had been friends for years by that point. Anyway, he asked Kris to hangout one night and the rest is history! Sometimes I have to fight my own brother for my boyfriend's attention. How crazy is that?" S2 chuckled.  
"Chuck really said all that?"  
The change in tone instantly caught S2's attention. "Yeah. Was he not like that with you?"  
Sam slowly sat on the bed next to her alternate.  
"I honestly don't know. Chuck was only 10 when he passed away" she stated, her voice much softer and calmer than before. "Wait…it's been 6 years since then. That means…oh my gosh, my brother is 16 years old."

The two momentarily sat in silence. It hadn't dawned on Sam just how old her siblings now were. She had caught a glimpse of them not long after she had arrived in this new dimension, but it was a quick glimpse since that was all she could handle at that time. She was now going to see her baby brother who had only been 10 years old the last time she saw him as a now mini adult at the age of 16.  
S2 gently pulled Sam's head so that it laid on her shoulder.  
"You okay?" she asked softly.  
"Mmm" Sam hummed.  
S2 checked her phone. "They should be here within the next few minutes, you sure you're ready?"  
Sam carefully stood up. "I got this. This could be the only chance I'll ever get to see my siblings again, I'm not going to lose that chance."  
Just then the two Jay's knocked and then entered the room.  
"Hey, how are you holding up?" Jay asked.  
"Chuck is 16 now" Sam stated bluntly.  
"Are you serious?! Aw man" Jay said, shaking his hands while he squeezed his eyes shut.  
"You're freaking out as well, huh?" Sam said with sympathy.  
"Honestly, yes. Very much. Like I was so happy to see them all again. But now I'm realizing how much time has passed and it's making me really emotional and I'm nervous I'm gonna break down in front of everyone."  
"Yesss!" Sam blurted out. "I feel the exact same way!"  
The group went silent once they heard a knock coming from the other room.  
"Are you both ready for this?" J2 asked. "And remember, if anything happens then the two of us will be right upstairs in my room. It's a bit roomier in there so it will be easier for us to hide if we need to."  
Sam and Jay looked at each other and with a smile, they both nodded towards each other.  
"Let's go see our family" Sam said with a nervous yet excited smile.

Themes:  
Taeyeon-All with You  
Jessica-Golden Sky

The two entered the living room and made their way over towards the door. Sam opened the door and she and her brother froze as they observed the group in front of them.  
Jamie who was now 29 instead of 23 now had longer hair and while she still looked young as ever, it was clear that her faced looked much more mature compared to before. If anything, Jamie looked more beautiful and sophisticated than ever before. However, now that everyone else was taller, Jamie was now the shortest member of the family!  
Amber who was now 27 instead of 21 had gone through a similar facial transition as her older sister. She now had shorter hair which she had dyed a sandy blonde, and her t-shirt allowed the world to take in her tattoos on her right arm. Sam thought she looked more gorgeous than ever before, and she seemed so much more confident as well.  
Brian who was now 23 instead of 17 had a noticeable growth spurt, since he was actually a hair taller than Jay now! It was obvious that he had allowed his fashionista sisters to teach him how to style his hair and take care of his skin since his facial features were now all emphasized so that he now looked like a sophisticated movie star.  
Nick who was now 22 instead of 16 was actually the tallest in the group! Sam could also easily tell that her brother had been working out within the past 6 years due to the muscle he now had which was not there before.  
Haley who was now 20 instead of 14 had obviously mastered her make-up craft. Her make-up wasn't caked on, but it was noticeably there, just like Jamie who was also a make-up genius. Sam noticed the same thing with her sister's hair. Haley used to just straighten it, but now it was wavy and full of volume.  
And then there was Chuck who was now 16 instead of 10. His growth spurt was as evident as the muscle he had packed on (what had he and Nick been doing these past few years?!) since he was now about the same height as Jay. Her younger brother actually had a sense of style now and had even styled his slightly longer hair so that is swooshed to the side some in a flowy motion.

Kris and Brenda were standing towards the back of the group. Overall they both looked the same as before, but with much more stylish hairstyles which Sam assumed was influenced by her sisters. She questioned just how much Jamie and Haley actually influenced others to change their looks, and how different things would be in modern day back home if they both still had that type of influence.

"Hey kiddo, thanks for the invite" Amber said as she entered the room, ruffling Sam's hair in the process.  
Sam fought her hardest to keep a natural looking smile as her siblings all entered the room. She needed to act natural like this was any normal day where she was hanging out with her family, but man did she want to cry her eyes out.  
They were here! People she had not seen for 6 years, and while they were all the same they were also all so different.

"So, who brought games?" Kris asked as he closed the door. He then looked at Sam and instantly sensed the tension and anxiety within her. "Hey, you good?" he asked, gently placing his hand on the back of her neck.  
'Shit, I'm a girlfriend now!' Sam thought to herself. This new type of worry quickly replaced her previous thoughts and simultaneously changed her mood.  
"Yeah, I'm all good. Just been stressed out, hence wanting a sudden game night" she said with a soft but cheerier tone.  
"Oh I feel that" Kris replied with a wide smile. He took her hand and led her into the living room. "Let's see what crazy games everyone brought."  
The two made their way into the living room which was already filled with laughter.  
"Oh come on! You guys have never heard of Don't Step In It?" Brian asked with a straight face.  
"Where the heck did you find this?" Jamie asked, almost falling off the sofa from her laughter.  
"He got it as a prank gift and he decided that tonight was the night to play it" Haley replied, placing her cup down on the coffee table, knowing very well that she wasn't going to be drinking anything if she continued to laugh this much.

As Kris and Sam found a comfy spot on the carpet, Sam looked over and realized that Jay and Brenda had already begun opening the drinks and snacks that had been brought to the gathering.  
Once everyone was sitting in the living room, the group voted on which games they wanted to play first. The options were Just Dance through the Play Station, Cards Against Humanity, Pie Face, Twister, and apparently Don't Step In It. Obviously, Don't Step In It won and was the first game to be played.  
Sam lost count of how many times she had to hold onto her sides because of the hilarious reactions everyone made once they stepped in the brown playdough that was placed on the mat. The group decided to create their own rules and declared that if each player could dance to a song without stepping into the brown playdough placed on the mat, then they won that round. The person dancing had to wear a blindfold so that they couldn't determine where the playdough was as they danced, and even though everyone knew it wasn't really poop, their reactions were still hysterical since for a split second everyone forgot what was happening as they stepped in the goo.  
It was literally the dumbest game ever, and yet everyone was having the time of their lives because of the company they were with.

"Alright Sam you're up!" Nick declared, removing the blindfold and handing it to his sister.  
"Let's do this" Sam said with a chuckle. She never imagined that this is what she would be doing with her siblings after reuniting with them after their deaths, yet here she was. Dancing around on a plastic mat to Sober by Big Bang, trying to avoid stepping in playdough representing dog poop. This was the furthest thing she had in mind when seeing her siblings again, but she saw all the positives to this situation.  
As she danced around with her blindfold she listened to everything that she could.  
She listened to Amber sing and rap better than ever before to each song from the new album, proving that her skills had improved immensely over the past 6 years.  
She overheard Jamie, Brenda, and Haley talking about working for Channel 6 News (apparently Brenda's mother had highly recommended the three girls) and how they were loving their segment on the news where they were able to focus on stories related to health and beauty tips. Sam never knew that any of them were interested in this career, but apparently each of them were loving every second of it!  
She heard Jay, Brian, Nick, Kris, and Chuck all cheering and sensed them all dancing around her, all livelier than she could ever remember seeing them before.  
While she couldn't see perfectly through the cloth made blindfold, she could see Brian and Haley holding hands while they danced together, and assumed that the two were now officially in a happy relationship together. In this dimension they never were adopted into the same family, so dating was no problem for the childhood friends.  
She then heard Nick shouting out workout routines for Kris and Chuck to complete with him as they turned their workouts into a new dance routine. She heard him mention how they were routines he completed when he trained with his universities soccer team and how he couldn't wait to sign his contract to go pro within the next few months.  
She also heard Chuck shouting back alternate routines since apparently he was playing for his high school's soccer team as well, since you know, he was now old enough to go to high school.  
She also couldn't help but smile as she overheard Brian telling Jay all about how well his restaurant was doing, clarifying that Brian was still following his dream of successfully owning his own food business even at such a young age.

Sam was so focused on everyone else that she totally forgot about the game she was playing and stepped right into the playdough.  
The room erupted with laughter as Sam practically squeaked after stepping into the brown goop.  
"Oh it's warm! Get it off!" she yelled, plopping herself onto the couch and lifting her feet in the air.  
"Eww!" "Aw c'mon!" "For real?!" were some of the many things that Sam heard her siblings and friends shouting as she continued to hold her feet up in the air.  
"Nose goes!" she shouted, to which the youngest was the last to hear and was stuck with wiping the playdough off her feet. (Kris would have happily volunteered, but he had just headed towards the bathroom before Sam lost the round).

As everyone was cleaning up the game and getting ready for some rounds of Just Dance, Chuck noticed his sister staring at him. He was used to his sister doing things like this just to mess with him, but this seemed…a bit weird.  
"Wanna take a picture?" he asked with a chuckle.  
"How are you 16 already?" she questioned softly.  
Chuck froze. "What's wrong?" he asked cautiously.  
"Um, what?" Sam stuttered nervously.  
"You're acting strange. Did something happen?"  
"Lower your voice dude, I'm fine. Just, having a sister moment."

"Ugh, you just want Kris to be over here feeling you up, huh? He'd be all weirdly massaing your feet and stuff" he teased.  
"Yes, because I've turned into the type of woman who has a fetish for people touching my feet. Totally" she replied sarcastically.  
Chuck just shook his head as he pushed her foot down, cleaning off the last of the playdough. "Man, you sound like mom a moment ago though."  
"Mom has a foot fetish?!" Sam stated with wide eyes.  
"No! I meant about the whole 'how are you already 16' thing you dork! She's always saying stuff like that since her last 'baby' will be graduating from high school in a few years."  
"Mom…" Sam muttered softly, realizing she had been so focused on her siblings that she hadn't even thought to contact her parents.  
"Yes, mom. The woman who gave us life. You sure you're okay?" he questioned again.  
"She's just exhausted since she sleeps all day and stays up all night" Jay stated as he slapped his hands down onto Sam's shoulders.  
Sam mouthed the words 'thank you' and laughed along with the others as everyone stood up to begin their dance party.

About 4 people at a time actually held the controllers while they played the game, but the group as a whole got up onto their feet and danced around. The group partied and danced like crazy, constantly bumping into each other the entire time. Eventually they turned off the game and just started dancing to some of their most favorite songs.  
K-pop, rap, pop, rock, songs of every genre were played through the speakers as everyone jammed out and acted like the biggest group of adult dorks anyone had ever seen.  
For a moment, Sam felt the strangest mix of joy and guilt overcome her. She had Kris grabbing her hands and pulling him towards her as they danced together, her sisters were there to dance with her to all the more poppy-girly songs (the boys danced as well, but they purposefully were acting like dorks rather than trying to actually nail the dance moves like the girls were), Amber was there to rap with her, and all in all, she just had a large group that was obviously very close and comfortable with each other.

She was reminded of her childhood when her group of 8 would hangout like this every weekend because it had just become routine to spend time with loved ones, especially after everything they had been through. Now the group was even larger now that Kris and Brenda were here having fun with them.  
Sam would never be able to describe how happy she was in this moment. She always assumed that if she ever got a chance to see her siblings again that she would ask them a million questions, that she would break down and cry…instead, she picked up right where they left off.  
She danced and laughed and talked with her siblings as if she had actually been living with them all these years, as if they was her actual life now.  
Brenda and Jay were living a life as a couple and fulfilling all the dreams they had before starting a family, Amber was fulfilling her dream as a rapper and proving that not all women had to reveal their bodies in order to become successful musical artists, Jamie and Haley were excelling and moving up in the world in a career she never knew they were even interested in (to that extent at least), Brian was a successful business owner as his restaurant was thriving, Nick was in college since he also apparently wanted to be a professional athlete, and Chuck was just simply enjoying the simple and sweet day to day life of being a high school student.  
And then here she was, dancing with Kris who in this universe loved her more than life itself.

She wondered if this is how everything would have turned out if she had never lost her siblings, if the Foot had never stolen her life from her…but what about the turtles?  
She loved her siblings and would have given anything to have them continue to stay in her life, for this to be her reality, but then she never would have met her new family, her new reason for living.  
Sam didn't realize that because of her mental conflictions, that she wasn't moving to the beat and was begin to move slower and slower.  
"Whoa, you good there?" Kris asked, putting his hand around his 'girlfriends' waist.  
Sam looked down at the hand that was now on her hip. 'That doesn't belong there' she thought to herself.  
She pictured moments similar to this where she danced around with her mutant and human vigilante family. That's who she should be with, but was it wrong to like this family dynamic as well? She didn't have the same feelings for Kris as she did when she was younger, but she liked the picture that had been painted in front of her, a picture of what could have been for her and her whole family. However, she also loved the picture that was her real world, and she couldn't let that go either.  
"This isn't right" she whispered to herself.  
"Sam?" Jay asked as he now stood in front of his sister. "Where's your head at?"  
Sam slowly shook her head. "How am I supposed to choose one over the other? Act like one doesn't exist so I can be with the other? I can't do it."  
"Um, what's happening?" Jamie asked, picking up her phone and pausing the music.  
"I can't have one or the other Jay, I can't do it" Sam said again in a pained tone.  
At this point everyone froze and all eyes were on Sam. Everyone kept turning towards one another as they whispered to see who knew what was wrong with their sister/friend.

Jay took a deep breath as he gently placed his hands on his sister's shoulders.  
"Sam, would you like for us to leave?" he asked calmly.  
She shook her head as a stray tear rolled down her cheek. "No, they should be here! We should all be together" she said, beginning to lose her voice as she gasped for breaths.  
"Our parents?" Hailee asked softly, rubbing her sister's back as she tried to calm her down.  
"No, the guys!" Sam shouted.  
"Excuse me?" Kris asked abruptly.  
"No, I mean!...I mean…"  
Sam was about to confess everything and suffer the consequences afterwards, when she saw a large blue circle begin to form right outside the closed window.

Suddenly, something small shot through the window, and within the split second it took for everyone to look at what it was that just shattered the glass, the small black orb blew up into a large dust cloud.  
"Hide-!" Jay shouted before getting cut off.  
"Jay? JAY?!" Brenda began to shriek, not being able to see what stopped her boyfriend from calling out to the rest of them. Some grunts and groans could be heard, but nothing could be seen.  
Slowly, the smoke began to clear and everyone gasped at the sight in front of them.  
Only Jay and Sam knew who they were, but Karai and Tatsu had entered the room through the portal outside the window and now, while Karai held a kunai knife to Jay's throat, Tatsu was holding a gun (one of the gun's the rock soldier's owned) at the back of the heads of J2 and S2 who seemed as if they had been forced and were now laying on the ground.  
"Hello Sam. I was surprised to find you here, but hey, makes shit easier for us" Karai said with a sneer.  
"Why?" Sam asked. "Why are you here?"  
"What's going on?!" Amber shouted.  
This got Tatsu's attention as he immediately aimed the gun at the woman who had just spoke.  
"NO!" Sam shrieked.  
"What's wrong Sam? Don't want to lose your siblings again?" Tatsu asked with a nasty scowl.  
"Again?" Haley whispered, clinging onto Brian's hand as if her life depended on it.  
"Stop talking!" S2 shouted, not wanting her families confusion to lead to any deaths.  
"WHY ARE YOU HERE?!" Sam shouted once more.  
"Simple" Karai huffed, "so that we can force you to come with us. We can't do the turtles any harm if they don't see you get hurt."  
"No…" Sam said, shaking her head in despair. "This wasn't supposed to happen. I stayed away so that-"  
"So what?!" Karai interrupted. "So you could stay safe? So they could stay safe and not have to worry about you? Heh, I guess Kraang's methods of kidnapping you through the portal last time really got to you all, huh? Well I hate to…actually I love to break it to you, you're ALWAYS going to be a threat to their safety. As long as you're alive, you will always be a liability to them. They will always be at a disadvantage as long as you're alive. You will NEVER be able to run away from us, from the Foot, Kraang, whoever your enemy may be. I'd kill you now while you're powerless, but that would take all the fun away" Karai stated with a wicked grin.

"Let's go!" Tatsu yelled, making every jump slightly from the abrupt volume of his voice. "Everyone walk through this portal NOW! Or else you will be shot. I don't prefer to use these types of weapons, but they make my life a hell of a lot easier."  
"Sam, what is going on?" Kris mumbled.  
"Oh, that's not your girlfriend" Karai announced. She then yanked on S2's hair as the girl groaned out from the force being applied to the back of her head. "This one is. Same with the Asian guy. That one's not your man" she stated as she pointed at Jay.  
"What?" Brenda trembled.  
"WALK!" Tatsu demanded as he shot the gun off towards the ceiling. "Or else I can re-enact some familiar scenes for Sam and Jay. Want that?" he snarled.  
"Everyone just do what he says!" Jay shouted. "I'm begging you, just do what he says" he stated, his voice cracking as tears began to fill his eyes. He couldn't watch them all die, not again.

Tatsu pulled J2 and S2 up from the floor and shoved them back through the portal. Each person in the room was guided to walk through the portal where they were lead to what looked like a giant battle arena. Each person was handcuffed and shoved down to the ground where they all cowered against the glowing wall. The room was surrounded by gray walls with glowing purple strips within them, and the ground was made of what seemed to be a glossy black stone, almost like granite but much solid and tougher to break. There were some metal posts and cornered off barriers located throughout the room, almost as if a gladiator battle was going to be held within this room. Sam couldn't imagine what it was that Kraang used this room for on a daily basis.

Just as that thought crossed her mind, Kraang entered the room, cackling the entire time like a mad man.  
"Ahhh I've been waiting for this moment" he snickered, before he jumped when he heard shrieks of horror coming from Haley Jamie, and Brenda.  
"Ugh, shut them up" Kraang huffed.  
Karai walked down the line and punched each of the three women in the stomachs, and decided to punch Amber as well.  
"Dude what the hell?" she shouted.  
Karai then cuffed her hand around the women's neck.  
"I don't remember saying you could ask questions" she stated before shoving the women's head back towards the wall.  
"STOP IT!" S2 shrieked. "Just stop it!"  
"Hmmmm" Kraang hummed, "now which one of you is the real Sam I wonder? I hadn't considered what to do with two of you."  
"Leave her out of this!" Sam demanded.  
"No one told you to talk!" Karai shouted before back handing the woman.  
"SAM!" Kris cried out, fighting his hardest to release himself from his handcuffs before being kicked by Tatsu.  
"Heh, you crying out over a woman who's not even your girlfriend. You even kissed her" Tatsu taunted.  
"What the fuck is this man?" Nick asked is desperation. "Who are you? Why are we here?"

Kraang held up a hand before Karai or Tatsu could even take one step towards the man who had just spoken.  
"I am Kraang, a technologically advanced alien from another dimension. My rock soldiers, these lovely ninjas, and the Jay and Sam you've been hanging out with for the past hour are all from a different dimension as well. It's a shame you decided to hang out with them tonight. If you weren't with them, then you wouldn't have been roped into all this. You see, those two and their mutant friends have caused me and your other attackers a great deal of frustration. Basically, they're all a pain in our asses! So, thank them and all they're meddling for being the reason you're here."

Everyone, both due to their confusion and their fear, just stared at the ground.  
"I'm shocked Samantha" Kraang continued on, "where is your sense of humor? No jokes? No tricks? You're just lying their silently. Are you ill?"  
"Why are they all here?"  
"MY GOODNESS! Didn't you hear any of what I just said? I took your powers but that shouldn't have affected your hearing."  
"I know why I'm here!" she shouted in return, "but why are they here? Hurting them won't hurt the turtles. You only need me for that."  
"Heh, who said I only wanted to mess with the turtles?" Kraang asked in a twisted tone. "Granitor, throw her over here."  
The tall gray colored rock creature nodded and did as he was told as he grabbed onto the back of Sam's shirt and threw the girl forward.  
"How did they all die again?" Kraang asked Karai.  
Sam's head shot up. "No!"  
"Most of them were gunshot wounds."  
"NO!" Sam shrieked, beginning to kick her feet out and violently fling her arms as they were cuffed behind her.  
"The brown haired girl was stabbed though, the youngest boy had his wrists slit-"  
"STOP IT!"  
"And that one you know, he obviously didn't die, but he was beaten up pretty bad."  
"SHUT UP!" Sam continued to shout. She was flailing her body around at this point, it was all she could do as she predicted what terrible things Kraang was plotting.  
"Woooooooow Samantha!" Kraang bellowed as he took a step forward, carefully placing one of his gigantic feet right above Sam's head as she still lie on the ground. One slip, one wrong move, and her head would be crushed.

"Get them in ready position" Kraang demanded.  
"This way, let's go!" General Traag demanded as he and Granitor pulled on the arms and dragged Jamie, Amber, Nick, and Brian over towards one of the barriers so that they were basically piled on top of each other in the corner of one of the barriers.  
Screams echoed throughout the space as everyone began to catch on to what was happening.  
"Oh, the Asian guy got the bullet straight between the eyes, remember that" Tatsu called out.  
"DAMMIT STOP THIS!" Jay began to shout, acting the same way Sam just had.  
"What do you want us to do with them?" Karai asked as she pointed at Brenda and Kris.  
Kraang shrugged.  
"Get creative. We already have beatings, stabbings, and shootings to prepare for."  
"No, please!" Brenda cried out as she and her brother were dragged and slammed against the wall.  
"Got a whip?" Tatsu asked in a dangerously calm tone.  
"GRANITOR!" Kraang called out.  
"On it sir!"  
"And make sure to add the rest to that last group as well when you return!"  
"Understood sir!"

Kraang couldn't help but laugh as he heard the cries of terror.  
"How does it feel Samantha? To know that you can't do anything but lay there. To know that eventually you're siblings are all going to die AGAIN? HA! All you can do is lie there and listen to their screams since you're powerless. You're just an average human being who can't protect her loved ones anymore. You won't even get to see their faces when it happens. I'm going to make sure you suffer last. First, you're going to listen as I destroy the turtles, and then you're going to listen as I destroy your family a second time" he cackled maniacally.  
"Well Samantha?...Samantha? HEY!"  
Kraang took a step back and then picked up the girl so that she had to face him. He was shocked at her poker face.  
"Well then" he scoffed. "You're going to be that way, huh? Acting like a tough guy? I change my mind then. You're going to watch everything, and I'll make it even more gruesome once I get my hands on those turtles!" he bellowed as he shoved her up against the far wall, giving her a perfect view of all the terrifying sights in front of her.

Jamie, Brian, Nick, and Amber were all huddled against a corner with a rock soldier aiming a gun at them. Karai kept walking around Chuck and Haley who were now sitting back to back as she held out a knife towards them. Brenda, Kris, J2 and S2 were lined up along the wall as Tatsu kept cracking a whip against the ground. Jay was forced to lie on the ground while Granitor was now threating to crush parts of his body by squishing them, just how Kraang had just been threatening Sam moments before.

Sam fought her hardest to remain emotionless and not to shake while she was now handcuffed literally to the wall so that she was hanging by her wrists which were spread out, as if she was frozen in the middle of doing jumping jacks.  
She closed her eyes and mentally prayed, hoping that this wasn't the end. Regardless, she couldn't let Kraang win any more than he already had. He thrived and got off on other's misery and desperate reactions, so she would fight her hardest not to provide him that satisfaction. However, she also knew the second he caused any serious harm, she would crack quickly.

That's when Kraang ordered Karai and Tatsu to gather the turtles. They used the Laser Dimension Blade to open a new portal, and about 5 minutes later, the battle began.

**Hey! Thank you to anyone who is still reading this and reads this chapter!  
Sorry it took so long for me update :( ****  
Sorry there aren't even any turtles in this chapter, but that won't be the case for the next one.  
Hope everyone is staying safe during these tough times! **


End file.
